For you, I would
by chaam
Summary: When Jay is called back to a temporary assignment and goes MIA, Erin regrets allowing him to go back to be a ranger. But when she herself is caught in a case gone south, they meet again under the oddest circumstances. Will they be able to save each other?...and Chicago? Linstead.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 01

Good morning!

Jay was greeted by Ruzek just as he entered the precinct. Wishing him back Jay noticed that he was the last to enter that morning, almost late. Erin was doing some paperwork and others were probably gone for a coffee. But something else caught his eye as he put his coffee on the table and threw the change coins on to the catch all. Erin gave him a suspicious look.

"Tell me you don't have anything to do with that guy, he is a ranger uniform on and I have a funny feeling "

Jay looked inside Voight's office and frowned as he identified the person in uniform.

"that's captain Reed"

"does that suppose to mean anything?"

"He was my first captain in Afghanistan. . But a few years ago he retired early. " Jay said as he leaned on Erins desk. His gaze met her already worried eyes. "We have a history Erin, he is one of the best in rangers history, a legend. And if he is here, I must have something to do with it."

"wow" exclaimed Ruzek from behind Jay . "you said he retired, but he is in uniform"

"yep, and I'm as puzzled as you are Adam" replied Jay as Voight stood up from his seat and motioned Jay to come. Jay went in closing the door behind him as Erin and Ruzek exchanged glances.

"Hello Jay, I was just entertaining your boss with our stories back in the days, don't worry, its all good stories about you" the uniformed man stood up and gave Jay a hearty hug taking Jay aback, but he responded. The tall dark man complete with the dark green uniform still did not show off his age, which should be around mid fiftees. With the shiny shoes and the polished badges and stars the man made the plaid shirt Voight look small, Jay could not help but notice. Erin would have been pissed off if he mentioned it, though no body could deny it.

"I have to say sir, I am equally surprised by your presence here as well as I'm pleased to see you after such a long time". Jay said pulling back. "Never had a hug before while you were in uniform"

"I can assure you, you wont have that hug from me when we are back in the battlefield, so cherish that"

"back ?" Jay repeated as Voight stole a glance. He did not look happy, Jay was sure of that.

"about that, take a seat Jay" he said.

Alarm bells rang in Jay's ears. Voight's voice was unusually kind to him and that alone was enough for Jay to assume that something was going on. But he took the seat anyways preparing for the inevitable.

" what I'm about to say is confidential, so it needs to stay in this room, am I clear" the captain asked. His cool dude stance diminished and the stern profile was emerging little by little.

"Crystal" answered Jay, exited and scared at the same time.

" We have a new national security matter at hand that needs to be dealt with very discreetly. So discreet that they don't want active army personals Involved. That's why they have called back me, and I'm putting a team back together comprising of the best and the most trustworthy soldiers who are not in active duty. Where we are going and the other details are confidential until the mission briefing. I want you to be a part of my team Jay. "

Jay knew the moment he saw Captain Reed in uniform that he was being called back although the exact details were a bit overwhelming. When he was a Ranger, Jay looked up to him as a father figure. The man's compassion and kindness towards humanity was unshaken and very apparent despite the dust and blood in Afghanistan and Jay had the utmost respect for that. One time Jay gave his chest to a bullet to save the captain. Although Jay had a bulletproof vest on and was unharmed, the Captain knew he would do it even without it. The day he retired the Captain openly appreciated Jay's bravery and aggressiveness towards completing the task at hand resulting in Jay being absorbed to another unit by another captain, who was a friend of Reed, to a special convoy unit where he met mouse.

Seeing Jay was lost in his thoughts, the captain started to speak again.

" I see son, you've built a whole new life here, but you don't need to give that up. This team will be disbanded when the mission is accomplished which will take maximum two weeks. And you can return to your normal life again. This is temporary."

"you mean if I'm alive to return"

"no need to sugar coat son, this is a very very dangerous mission, otherwise I wouldn't be looking for people like you. Harvey and Mandall have already said yes. And I need your answer in two days" . the captain finished the talk as if it was an everyday matter. It had been a long time since the army days and beacause they left under medical reasons being called back was never an issue. So Jay needed time to even begin to comprehend the matter. But one good thing fell on Jays ears.

"Harvey and Mandall, the twins?" Jay asked with a smirk, so many fun memories coming up regarding the twins. They were so much fun to be with and Jay felt lucky to have such spirited people around him when the going gets was always tough.

" This is a mission I cannot tell you when it will go wrong. We depend on a limited amount of intel and Jay, I heard a lot about the life you have built here from your boss, I want you to think really hard before you make a decision. I'm not pressing you. Just as much as I would like to have you in my team, I cant help but feel guilty for dragging you in to this."

"We are all bound by our duty towards our country"

"Expected that much from you Jay, but really, think hard, ok" the captain said stealing a glance through the glass door at the worried face of Erin which was not missed by Voight or Jay.

As the captain was ready to go he shook hand with Voight and Jay almost saluted. Muscle memory.

"Already in the mood ha? "

The captain chuckled as he pulled jay for a hug. "Cherish this coz if you decide to stay and I don't return from the mission, this will be our last. And sergeant Voight, if he decides to join, then although temporarily, sorry in advance for pulling your man"

"If he decides to join you, then make sure he comes back in one piece " Voight said.

The threesome joined in a small laughter and Jay stared at the departing captain with his signature stance, hands on his hips.

"if you are leaving the team, make sure the paperwork is completed before that" Voight said to a Jay who held a smile in his face that read as "you are unbelievable" But he nodded anyways.

"Jay, take the day off if you need" Voight said as if to soften the blow of mentioning paperwork to a man who was about to leave for a scuicidal mission.

Jays jaw dropped. "I really feel like Im not ginna come back."

Voight bit his lip as the words left Jays mouth and closed the door behind him.

The team mates were watching the interaction. They all held expressions that neede really quick explaining from their faces.

"What is it Jay?" asked Erin ,her curiosity taking over her.

"Jay sat slumped on his chair as the team waited for an answer.

"Jay" Olinski repeated reminding him the question that was hanging in the air.

" I'm being called back to rangers, for a special mission, temporary assignment for two weeks. Dont ask anything else coz Everything else is confidential" Jay answered as the team gave different expressions of disappointment.

"so you are leaving? " asked Antonio.

" I don't know, I have two days to decide" Jay said ,his eyes set on Erin. "if I leave and don't come back in one piece , I want all of you to know that I love you ." he added as paper balls flew at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello everyone,

A huge thank for everyone who read the first chapter. Hope everyone, or most of everyone will like this story. Will try my best to make it an exiting story to read just as much as I try to make this story a none-silly one. If any body could be generous enough to drop a review, it'll make my day. Thanks in advance and enjoy.

Disclaimer : I do not own Chicago PD.

CHAPTER 02

It had been a week since Jay left. A week with no contact, not hearing his voice, not seeing his smile that he bragged Erin would miss when she was leaving for the federal task force, and those sky blue eyes. She had been keeping herself busy to distract her from the memories. She wouldn't dare look at his locker in the lockers room. But she was disappointed at herself because she never thought she would be such a wreck at the separation from her love. She was Voight's steel girl, but here she was , feeling so vulnerable without Jay beside her to the point she mentally slapped her more than once a day. So far she has been successful maintaining her outer cover but she reached the breaking point when she found herself standing in front of Jay's apartment building. Lost in her thought she had automatically driven her car to Jay's apartment after work. She looked at the window of Jays room in his apartment that stared out in to the road. Although she had a key she hadn't set foot in there after he left.

She remembered the conversation they had in that room before he left. They were wrapped in each other after a hectic day of work and Jay was asking for her opinion on what to do.

"what do you want to do Jay? Erin questioned back. " if you do what you feel is right, then you wont regret in the future."

"I don't want to go Erin, not in my wildest dreams. Do you really think that I would want to leave everything I have here? You, Will, the team. But it's only for two weeks and captain reed is a great man. He knows what he is doing. Only risk here is the risk of life, will I make it back? He did mention that this is a suicidal mission coz we are working on limited intel and even with that there is a potential leak of intel. But we risk our lives everyday here in Chicago too, right?

"I get it Jay, you need to go, and I understand, If I were you, I would want to do the same too. Besides we are grownups , so for our own benefit lets be a little less sentimental and be realistic for two weeks". Erin said tugging a little tight on to his hands as if to not let them go, her hands doing the opposit of what she was telling.

"just for two weeks Erin ". Jay said turning her to face him. Underneath he knew she did not like the idea. But he conciously ignored it for the same reasons she did. That one day he might regret not accepting and feel like a coward.

"yeah"

"thanks Erin"

"Just don't die out there, ok?"

Its true that she did encourage Jay to go. She knew that If he didn't go his man pride will kill him from inside, that he will forever regret it. Little did she knew how much she has gotton used to their lives together. She clanked her keys and turned to go.

"hey Erin" she turned back to see the other Halstead coming home after his shift.

"You were speaking with his window, should I be calling Dr. Charles? He asked and then his lips narrowed in to a thin line with no humor because he was late to realise what he said. Erin might have had enough conversations with Dr. Charles already, probably not the best joke when it came to her. So he changed the tone and the topic. " Let's just go inside, its freaking cold out here anyways"

"No I'm good, I was just leaving"

" oh come on" Will pleaded. Partly due to his need to have company in the lonely apartment and partly due to his need to make up for his stupid joke and partly because he didn't want Dr. Charles to tell that without Jay, Erin is walking through the same lonely passage that he does.

" lets go in and have a beer, I miss him too" he invited offering her the charming Halstead smile.

Erin badly wanted to go in and cuddle in the sheets of his bed that had his scent, but she was hesitant to let anyone know what a mess she has become ever since Jay left. But she swallowed her pride and soon she found herself following Will in to the building.

"I was used to living alone in New York, you know, but a few months with Jay and now I'm craving for his company". Will threw his keys to the side table as he set the groceries on the kitchen table. "just don't tell him I said so"

"me too" Erin admitted accepting the beer from Will. They settled on the sofa and switched on the tv for a game.

"I'm so scared Will, just have a nagging feeling that something isn't right ever since he left"

" I get that too, but maybe its just the lack of information. We don't know where he is, what he is doing, we don't even know if that plane he took out of Chicago reached its destination". Will reasoned as he sipped his beer. The tangy liquid burning down his throat gave him a little feeling that everything will be okay.

Erin sat in silence, neither of them actually concentrating on the game. After sometime Erin spat out her burning desire. " Will, would you mind if I stay over tonight?"

Will gave her a grin. " Erin this is your place too, you don't even have to ask, you have a key right?

" I just thought that maybe his bedroom full of his stuff will bring me some much needed serenity. I badly need something to calm me down. Just don't tell him I said so. "

"Of course...now we're even" will laughed giving her a fist pump.

That night Erin got her self a nice warm bath, used his shampoo, got dressed in his t shirt, ate from Will's Chinese food on Jays plate and slept like a baby. She felt so good in the morning too. Knowing what a neat freak ranger Halstead is she carefully tucked the bed linen and made sure not a single frill was visible. "He wont even know I was here." She smiled to herself, prepared breakfast to both Will and herself to make up for sharing his dinner last night and went off to work like a newly freed bird.

And there at work the team waited impatiently for her arrival to start with the new case. Erin wasn't late, but the case was too important to wait for anything. It came from a CI of Voight and thus his impatience. Erin sat on her desk visibly happy which did not go unnoticed by her team members who also happened to notice the failed attempts of Erin to hide her anxiety over Jays departure through out the last week .

"is Jay coming back sooner than two weeks?" Ruzek popped the question.

" No, why would you ask that?" Erin asked as she glared at him. This was the moment she was sure that she was giving away her emotions more than she thought she was. So she kept the glare on her face plastered. And Ruzek knew he asked the wrong question infront of Voight. She had to upkeep her image.

"nothing, i just wish" so he retreated with a stutter as antonio hid his smirk.

"Lets get to work" Voight said ignoring the exchange. He put on two pictures on the white board and both looked the same.

"Twins, known for everything illegal since they turned fourteen. Grew up in street and now...multimillionaires. Note this, these two are not the average street criminals. These are two brainy bastards. Kills only if it is a must. Keeps enemie as low as possible. Specialists of trading illegal stuff, weapons primarily. They provide specialist services to other basterds who wants to transport illegal stuff to other countries or states or wherever in the world. They keep their hands clean all the time and never have their cargos being taken by the police. We have only bits and pieces of information on them. But one of my CI, who very recently landed a job as a transporter informed me that something special was on their way. My CI was regorously interviewed by the twins by themselves with the use of a lie detector to make sure he was clean.

"your CI lied to a lie detector? Erin asked in disbelief.

" no, at that time he had no intention of informing me, wasn't even a proper CI. But when he saw the amount of security measure taken by the twins regarding this and the fact that he overheard a conversation between the twins which hinted that they are planning to leave the city once the deal is closed, changed his mind". Voight said observing the puzzled faces of his team.

" my CI is suppose to transport a truck load from chicago lab to an undisclosed destination. He will be informed where to during the transportation. From a street to street, corner to corner. He doesnt know his destination until he is asked to stop. And the amount he is paid to do that is...hefty".

" So all we have is chicago labs" Olinsky joined the discussion from the his usual corner. If Jay was here he would be in a mini startle! Thought Erin. Jay never got used to Olinsky's sudden appearance from the corner behind him when everyone thought he isn't even in the precinct.

"Erin and antonio, you two go and try to get something from the head at chicago lab. Try to find if anything new or potentially big and bad is already sitting at the lab"

Erin came back from her reverie when she heard Voights command.

They waited for the head scientist who was also the manager of the chicago labs to appear before them in his office. The lab buildings were newly painted and a state of the art security and camera system was at place that did not escape the eyes of the two detectives. A repair to a building was still going on and it looked like the existing building had been recently repaired.

"sorry to keep you waiting " a man in his mid forties came in to the office hurriedly. From the first look itself the man looked honest and humble. Erin and Antonio stood up and shook hands with him. "So how can I help the chicago intelligence" he asked as he sat down .

Antonio started the conversation. " before we start this conversation please know that everything we speak here should remain confidential. " he said.

"In that case let me switch off the microphones in the security system" the manager stood up and reached a panel on the wall. He typed on the keypad and sat on his desk again signing Antonio to resume the dconversationan.

"thank you, we have trusted information that something very important is about to arrive at this lab or is already here. Could you tell us something about it".

The manager looked puzzeled. "how do you know about this" he questioned. "no body is suppose to know about it"

This made Erin and Antonio exchange a glance. They had come to the right place.

"our information came from a CI" Erin answered to the startled manager.

"I cannot disclose that information to you unless you have proper security clearance from the pentagon"

"the pentagon?" Antonio repeated as it was their turn to be startled.

"yes, I'm sorry but right now all I can say is that this is a government project and that no body should know about it. If the information came from a CI then I have to inform the authorities that there is a security risk". The manager went on.

" so there is nothing else you could tell us ? Antonio pried purely out of curiosity. But the manager stood his ground.

" I will inform my contact person from the pentagon about this. I'm sure he would like to know more information about this from you"

" sure" Erin said as she stood up to go. It was a waste of time. To add to her dismay now the case will be dissmissed with the Pentagon involvement. They came outof the Chicago Labs dissapointed.

"Pentagon, government project and a security leak...never a good mix to poke our noses in to. " Antonio said breaking the silence as they walked to the car park. "can't wait to see bosses face.."

"This place looks like it borrowed from the Pentagon security it self, look at the newly done moat" Erin observed. "There is an electric fence as well, what the hell is going on here?" she wondered aloud.

When Erin and Antonio reached the front desk Platt gave them an impossible to understand look. When they turned to the stairs she nodded at Crowley's office and through the blinders they could see Army uniforms.

"That manager is fast, the pentagons already here" Antonio said to Erin who was buzzing in herself.

"Can't blame, its the Pentagon! " she said keeping the door open for Antonio.

"Or not" Antonio replied. His smile faded as he saw the visitors one by one exited the office; Voight, captain Reed and another army personnel.

To worsen the matter a zombie like Will Halstead came in through the main door and when he saw Erin, his face turned white as a sheet.

Erin gasped and Antonio reached her concerned. She shook Antonios grip and descended the whole staircase in two jumps to reach Will and Voight who were shaking hands with the Rangers. Voight turned to them with a very concerned look he usually reserve for Erin.

"I'm so sorry" Captain Reed said to Erin as she reached them. But before Erin could loose it he said something that made her pull herself together.

"We have a few leads and our team is searching for him, I promise you we will find him"

"So he's ..." Erin stuttered with no couraged to complete the sentence. Her throat felt like it was webbed and her knees were already wobbling.

"Hank will explain, I must leave now but before I go could I have a few words with you"

Erin stepped back with no second thoughts so the captain could speak to her privately.

"Erin, I know this is a vey difficult situation" as the captain began Erin wondered how he knew her name. But the rest of his talk was self explanatory.

"Jay was very conserned for you and he told me a lot about you. But if you are the woman he thinks you are, I know you will somehow get through this, untill we find him, you have to stand tall for both of you"

Erin nodded in a haze. She still didn' t know what exactly happened. But the fact that Jay was alive gave her knees the strength to stand up. The captain patted her shoulder and said his goodbyes.

Voight came to her and took her by the shoulders. Erin prayed to god wishing that he will not do anything more sentimental because a waterfall of tears were struggling behind her eyes to pour out. Last thing she wanted was a public meltdown.

"In short, Jay is MIA, there's not much to say coz everything else is according to that guy 'classified" Voight said but he did not seem satisfied. "Al has some old friends in Pentagon, I'm gonna call them, that guy seem to hide a lot and I don't like it."

Erin nodded again as it was the onlything she was able to do right then. Voight turned to Will , said something and hugged him tight. Will seemed to embrace it as his eyes were closed like he was waiting for someone to give him that little spark of hope that somewhere Jay was alive and will come back.

After Voight and Antonio departed leaving Erin and Will to stare at eachother in the midle of the front office Will shrugged and closed the distance between them. A white piece of paper waved in his hand.

"I just got this and I wanted to tell you in person" his broken voice echoed through the people moving between them and arround. "Shall we go out for a moment"

Erin silently walked out. Platts gaze followed her like a hawk but Erin was blind to a lot of things. Ironically she stopped infront of the fallen officers plaque. Nadias name stared at her.

"I'm sorry but I didn't know where else to go. Should I just leave" Will asked when he saw the tears welled up in her eyes. Maybe his presence was only making her more upset. But Will wanted someone to lean too. He wasn't here just for Erin's sake. She was family to him and she was the only person on earth who would uderstand the exact pain Jays' void made. A single tear escaped Will's eyes and that was it for Erin. She made a one step sprint towards him and hugged him tight as if she was afraid that he would leave her too. And they hugged a little longer untill her tears would stop.

Like that they made peace with the fact that Jay was MIA - missing in action, that they might and most probably not see him agIn. They dare not say the word but it was the only thing they could think of. 'Is Jay dead?'

* * *

There, chapter 02 done. Expect a surprise next chapter.

Reviews anyone?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 03

Erin took the steps to the precinct, slowly, like the weight of her heart pushed down on her feet and every step was laboured. Her mind rang with words from Will.

"I have a feeling that everything is gonna be alright, he will come back Erin, he has to"

"Of course he has to" Erin had repeated much to ensure herself. But they didn't even know where he was deployed. What if he is hurt or is being hurt by some one, even right now?What if he was deployed in a war striken country, maybe back in Afghanistan? What if he is captured and tortured?

Erin shivered as the thought crossed her mind. And at the end of the staircase she was met with the empty seat of mouse. It was then she realised that there was someone else other than Will and her who is equally affected. She looked in to the rest room but her view was obstructed with the pity looks of Kevin and Ruzek. Erin wanted to shout at them and say that Jay was still alive but thought the better of it. She walked to the rest room where mouse sat in a chair. His head rested on his palms. When he heard her steps he stood up.

"Erin " Mouse said with a guilt striken tone, as if Jay was his responsability.

"Maybe this isn't the right time to say it but this is not the first time Jay went MIA. But he survived, and he will come out this time too"

Erin looked at him emptily realising that there is still a huge part in Jay's life that she didn't know about. Clad in the comfort of having eachother they both avoided discussing their pasts. Both their pasts. Erin didn't know whether to regret it or not.

She patted his shoulder and headed for the coffee machine , sweet sweet caffain might dull her heart ache. She wished she could take the hardest liquir and forget everything in the resulting blur. But she wasn't gonna slip this time. She made a promise to Jay before he left, that even if the worst scenario becomes real, she will stay true to the effort they all took to get her life back to where it is today, she will stay true to that promise.

An hour later Erin was typing the same thing avoiding the woebegone faces of her team mates. Al and Voight were missing, probably contacting the 'old friends' he mentioned. God ! How she wished she could know something...the smallest thing about where and what Jay was up to before he went missing... Most of all how the hell he went missing when his captain is live and kicking delivering the sad news around giving her the attitude talk. She felt her anger replacing the grieve in her. She has a right to know what happened to the man she love ! And her thoughts stopped there. She has yet to tell him that. Jay asked her to move in with her but she hadn't given him an answer. She wanted him to move in with her, but she couldn't get herself to start that talk because she was trapped in the grief of loosing Justin and then by the possibility of loosing Hank.

Things only started to settle down after the whole fiasca of digging up the supposed grave of the justins killer, when Jay was called back to the rangers. With that any talk on moving together vanished like it never existed. Now it only added to the pile of regrets Erin summed up for herself which consisted of encouraging him to take the mission, not telling him that she loves him or how much she love him and not telling him the only reason she didn't wanna move with him is because she wanted him to move in with her.

She shook off the thoughts off her mind and stood up to get the fifth coffee of the day. So she could restart the report she was typing...for the fifth time. But she was suddenly crowded by Al and Voight peering over her desk.

"We have something, not good news, if you can take it now, come in to my office, or we'll discuss later"

"I'm already in your office" Erin said stepping in throught the door as quickly as she can. Anything that could quench her quriosity, she would accept with welome hands , good or bad. Voight sat on his chair while Al settled on the side of the table leaving Erin standing.

"So I first talked to this guy, a captain in rank and he had no idea what I'm talking about. So the all 'confidential' crap should be true. But then I talked to this high end guy; very top ranking. He owes me his life. Agreed to share the little he knew. According to what he knew, captain Reed's team was suppose to retrieve and transport something back home. Something disasterouse if fallen in to the wrong hands. And from the very beginning, the information was out, though the army intelligence still doesn't know how. So among the top ranks, they decided to do it without actual army personnels involved. That is where ex rangers team, Jay's old team come in to play. Now he says the item was retrieved successfully but during the transportation the mission went south. Two are missing and here is the bad news. They think Jay and the other missing guy is part of it. They think who ever obtained the item most probably weapons smugglers, had help from Jay. They are considering freezing all Jay's properties upon proper evidence"

Erin gasped. She could not believe what she was hearing. "You are kidding me right?"

"Erin, calm down" Voight said standing up.

"Calm down? Calm down? "Erin Shouted. By then attention of the others had turned to them. "Jay didn't think twice about risking his life for this country, he never did, not when in CPD, not in rangers, and this is how they are treating him? "

Voight came around his table to reach her and cupped her face in his large hands. "Erin, we cannot fight the Pentagon, or the Rangers. They have their own jurisdiction. What we can do, is use our head and fight _for_ Jay. Lets take our time to think this through. "

She removed his hands from her as anger rushed up in her. "We can take time to think and plan and act, I know. But will Jay have that time? She said through the glossy eyes, tears threatning to pop out.

"Erin, I've already lost one son, I will not loose another. I can guarantee you, we will fight for Jay to the best we can. "

A hickup escaped her upon hearing Voights words and she stormed out of the precinct. Antonio turned to stop her but Voight asked not to.

"Let her go" he said and Antonio stopped in his tracks. "She needs to steam off, or else she will be a walking disaster ...let her go. "

Erin got in to her car and peddled on the gas as if she was in NASCAR. Usually the speed gave her concentration. Driving fast down the not so much busy lanes gives her a sense of calmness, it lets her collect her thoughts while her hands do the driving automatically. But right now even that wasn't helping. Because everytime she took a sharp turn, a sudden break she remembered how Jay gave her the looks when she drew fast with him in the car.

She had come to the suburb area of Chicago trying to avoid the traffic. Thats when she noticed the Army cars parked outside the heavily guarded Chicago lab gates. And through the tinted window she recognised a figure, a face she had come to familiarise recently. She slowed down to get a better look. And she could swear that the person behind the glass saw her too, and the unexpected meet had the now familiat stranger give her a subtle look, almost an expression of a threat. Yes she was sure. It was Captain Reed behind the glass and neither did he expect to see her at this place nor was he happy to see her. But as Erins car passed hm by, he turned his look in to an acknowledgement and Erin replied by nodding.

Instinct made her drive the car continuously. She didn't stop untill she reached the CPD although everything in her wanted to stop and see what was going on. She rushed upstairs and looked for mouse feeling a rush of energy hitting her. He was peering in to the screen as usual. So Erin sat infront of him.

"I need a full work up on Captain Reed and the Chicago Labs manager" she said as he watched her surprised. "Off the record"

Mouse seemed to contemplate her request for the briefest second. But he agreed. "Sure, I'll use my equipments"

Antonio stood up next to her and leaned on mouse's table."why? " he asked.

I was passing by the Labs and at the gates I saw Captain Reed waiting to go in. Chicago labs, Pentagon, Government project, Captain Reed and Hanks CI intel. Ring any bells?

And in that moment the whole of intelligence shared one thought.

 _Jay..._


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello readers,**

 **Before we go in to this chapter, remember that I have placed this story after Jay asked Erin to move in with him but before she asked him to move in with her instead.**

 **Also this chapter has a lot of reference to what happened to Jay but doesn't explain to the reader the full incident. Don't be mad coz I could not find the right place to put it. It will be explained in the next chapter though.**

 **CHAPTER 04**

" _This is not a good idea, that air vent may end up right at the face of whoever is keeping us here, provided you somehow manage to climb up and get out of it without being eaten up by rats maybe bats or most probably if you somehow manage to breath at all"_

"I know ..."

" _but?"_

"But ... We have to do something, I'm having enough of this, we don't know day from night, how many days do you think we have been here? I've lost all counts, I'm having enough of sitting here and eating KFC "

" _well, atleast we get KFC, things could be worse"_

"How so"

" _we could be starving_ , _tortured or ...dead like Mandell "_

"But we aren't starving, not tortured and we are still breathing, not quite living or serving our original purpose either, are we?

" _we are surviving"_

"Yeah right, what a master of positivity you are Halstead !

* * *

Erin was waiting for something...anything from Mouse. Her window was open and the sound and the feel of the fresh air was doing a bit of a help easing up the fast running gears in her head. The food cartons beside her bed wasn't even half empty and was getting colder. She looked at them and made a mental note to start cooking at home again. She had no will to cook at home and depended solely on spicy and greasy takeaways that teased her nostrills, forceably creating apetite in her. They were also responsible for the kilogram she put on since Jay left. Time to start cooking and hit Antonios gym for extra work out.

Something in her was telling her that she was in the right track. Although she wasn't sure how to move forward in this case she was hoping with the intel from Mouse the road will be clear. The sorrow that had envelopped her ever since she got to know that Jay was MIA was now gone, itching to do something about her hunch. She could not go to sleep untill she received news from Mouse, not that she was a good sleeper ever since Jay left. But today was different. She couldn't sleep because of anticipation and not because of the empty space on the other side of the bed.

So yes, when the phone rang, for her thrill it was mouse. But things could change in miliseconds. Before she answered her phone her bedroom window made a sound. She turned to see and saw the bulky men coming through it. One of them expertly sent his flash light hurling at her hand and she lost the grip of her phone and as she dived for her gun on the bed side cupboard one of them pulled her by her ankles and she fell on the floor with a thump. Someone stood on her hands and there was no way she could move them and pain was only beginning by the crushed muscle and veins. Then a piece of cloth reached her mouth. She thought they were going to put it in her mouth and muffle her. She began to scream trying desperately to make the smallest possible sound so someone will hear her. But the piece of cloth quickly covered her mouth and the sharp smell that came to her was only there for seconds for she fell unconcious.

Why the hell did she kept her windows open...

* * *

The two soldiers stopped the push ups they were doing to the faint echo of boots coming from outside. For days they have been listning to this echo. It has been the one thing that connected them to the outside world. For days the same boots opened a small window on the door through which the only light they saw ever since their capture poured in to the room for a briefest second. It was through that same light they saw that they were in a prison room which had a toilet in the far left corner and an air vent right above it. Through that window two bags always fell in to the room each carrying a burger and a water bottle.

"This is my last KFC " Harvey swore. His eyes travelled to the corner where they had piled at least a dozen and a half of empty KFC bags and plastic water bottles.

"If you go through that hole, it might literally be" Jay said to his fellow whose impatience unlikely for a ranger was getting the better of him. But he dare not say anything about it because the guy saw his brother Mandell get shot during the shootout. He was thankfull Harvey was keeping it together for this long.

"Idon't care, I just can't go home without mandy...if we make it alive" He then opened up the paper bag that was thrown inside and put it down unceremoniously.

"Seriously bro, are they trying to kill us with KFC?" he asked. "Why don't they just put a bullet in our head?

Jay wasn't surprise at how he changed the subject. He knew very well how upset his fellow soldier was but the guy didn't wannna talk about it and Jay respected that. They both had to be in a strong mental status to survive this. So, if avoiding the eliphant ...maybe two eliphants in the room was the way to it, he was ready for that. So instead Jay summarised their techniques so maybe it will bring his friend back to the right track and make him stay on it.

"They want us to do something for them, that's why the food comes regularly. So that we won't be weak physically. But they also want us to be at the edge of our nerves. That's why the the food is the same annoying thing everyday and the deprivation of sunlight and the wait for information on what is going on. "

"Our hands are not bound, we have a nice spacy room with a flushable toilet and the guard doesn't throw food bags at us but put them down on the floor through the hole. Which means they might want us to agree on something with them" Harvey joined him much to Jays pleasure.

"Its an emotional game, maybe because they know we are too good to bend at torture that they prefer we do it at our descretion"

"Do what Jay?" Harvey brought up the big question. It has been weighing both of them down and he just couldn't get his mind off of it.

"What do you think they are going to do with the bomb? Jay answered with another question at his buddy.

"The usual stuff ...blow it up!" Harvey chuckled.

"Then we failed" Jay said to the floor. He did not voice it but he had counted 21 burger meals now. That means if they were given three meals a day they had been captives for probably a week and a lot could happen in a week. They were in total and complete darkness that they couldn't even see each others face. They haven't had a shower for the duration and Jay thought the only reason he couldn't smell himself was because the place smelled far worse. But he couldn't break. He promised himself that he will utilise any oprtunity to disarm the bomb and survive to go home to...Erin.

"But they are keeping us alive" Harvey added "that means they still haven't gone past your password, they need you alive for your password. Why are they keeping me alive?

" my password in return for your life"

"It's probably that" Harvey said and Jay could feel his friends heavy breath. Its a technique widely used. Two soldiers who are friends provide an excellent background to use the technique. While torturing one , the other will be forced to watch or give away the information needed so the torture will stop.

"Harvey.." he started but Jay wasn't allowed to complete it.

"We know the game Jay, and we know the consequences if we allow them to win. Can you emagin the aftermath of a pulse bomb in chicago. The police will be totally blind, the gangs will...god I don't even wan't to think about it"

"Lets just hope they haven't found a genie that could crack the password." Jay said hopefully. He sure wasn't gonna give them the password. Even if it killed both of them. The whole of chicago was far worth than their lives.

Then they heard the footsteps again and this time they counted footsteps of more.

"Thats unusual" harvey joyously got up in anticipation. " I told you this was my last meal, either way"

Jay frowned at him. But retrived because he knew Harvey couldn't see his annoyed gesture.

The door opened fully for the first time and a bright light was placed On the floor. Jay and Harvey closed and covered their eyes in pain. Their eyes hadn't seen a light in about a week and they were sick from light deprivation feeling cranky at the loss of sunlight.

"Give your eyes sometime, they will get use to the light " a voice said. Neither Jay nor Harvey needed light to know who was speaking.

"Captain" they shouted simultaniously. The surprise was just too much.

But their surprise and the hint of happiness that started to emerge quickly disappeared at the realisation that their captain was not theirs anymore. The atmosphere felt so suffocative to the two soldiers.

"You're with them ! Harvey exclaimed incredulously. His tone was pregnant with hatred and disappointment. Before long Jay who was still trying to open his eyes fully heard the thumping of boots on the floor. Harvey had managed to open his eyes and jumped at Reed. They were fighting on the floor. Fists exchanged and kicks thrown. Jay opened his eyes slightly and ran at them. Harvey was not goanna win this fight. He was weak and outnumbered fighting against a man who was at least half a foot taller than him. Jay heard other men coming at them in the outside corridor and managed to drag his friend out of the quarrel just in time or else he could have ended with a bullet from the gang members who flooded their prison cell like a wave.

"you killed him, you killed Mandy". Harvey shouted trying to get loose from Jays hold. Reed got up from the floor and signed his men to back down.

"I gave you a chance to go back to the base, why didn't you just go" he asked wiping out a smear of blood coming from his parted lips.

"traitor" Harvey spat at him. Before Jay could stop, a man with a rifle jumped in between them and butted his head with the gun and Harvey slid through Jays hands unconscious. Jay knew the man very well. He was a gang leader he put in jail some years ago when he was in gang unit.

He then walked a circle around Jay putting quite a show. Jay truly felt the presence invading his personal zone as threatening. The guy was doing a good job.

"Isn't it ironic, last time we met the circumstances were opposite. Do you remember me? "

Jay kept silent. He knew the mans name was 'big D '. Big because of the size and d for Diago.

When no answer came from Jay he pointed the riffle at Harvey who was lying unconscious and Jay quickly gave what the man wanted.

"big D"

"that's right. That's my name. And I paid all my dues in prison thanks to you. Now I'm out for revenge. Take back the name you snatched from me. Isn't it ironic we met again". The lament of a psychopath unfolded like that.

There were a thousand things Jay wanted to say but knowing his situation was dire he refrained from making empty threats.

" you are smart" the man said to Jay. " you are silent, observing, calculating and making mental notes".

Jay stood there unfazed clearly hiding his emotions. Years of ranger training coming to his aid.

"if you are as smart as I think you are you will accept my offer"

"which is"

"During the shootout you somehow managed to enter the kill password to two pods. We did not see that coming. We employed a very skilled hacker but to no avail. So give us the password and we let you and your friend walk or else shall we put it this way? If you don't give us the password we will give your friend the most torturous and slowest possible death"

Jay knew this was coming. Infact this was not the first chance he was in such a situation. Fate was playing cruel games with him. But when the man looked at him with the most evil smile he had only one thing to say. "If you know me so well...you already know my answer"

"Jay, just give us the damn password, you don't need to make this any harder than it already is" captain Reed joined the conversation. Jay shivered with disgust. Such were words he never thought would come from his captain. But Jay kept silent. Mostly because he did not know what to say to the man he considered his mentor for a long time. His mind was a complete blank when it came to confronting Reed, like his brain was yet to comprehend the fact that he was a traitor.

"I'm running out of patience, lets get this started, tell me when he becomes conscious "

with that big d and his men stepped out of the room. Captain Reed who held a gaze at Jay shook his head in disappointment, was the last to step out. Before the door closed Jay found the question he had to ask.

" Why?

Reed turned back and stepped in again. The door was yet to close. He let go a breath he was holding and faced Jay.

"Do you know Jay my wife and I always wanted more than one kid but we never really got the chance to try because I was never really home. And the army, knowing very well who I was, what dedications I had made for this country at the cost of my family, still sent in my only son undercover on a suicidal mission when he wasn't even fully trained. After his death my wife was never the same. She started hurting herself because she thought it was her fault that she let him join the army. She started hurting her self and the police and neighbours thought it was domestic violence by a retired army officer with PTSD. Like that wasn't enough they had to call me for this mission. That's when I decided enough was enough. This is my revenge Jay. Nobody will stop me from it. Not you, not Harvey, no body. "

Jay could see Reeds eyes shining with the little light in the prison cell. Whether it was tears trying to stream out or just pure hatred he couldn't tell. Maybe it was both. While Jay was lost in the new information the door closed and he was standing in the pitch black again. He sat down and turned Still unconscious Harvey in to a comfortable position and wished he will sleep as long as he could because once he is up what ever big d was planning to do with them will start. !

* * *

Erin woke up to the sound of a horn. Must be a big truck. She thought. She then realized it was dark and tiny peeps of light was in front of her. As the last memories flooded in to her mind she felt the bounds against her wrists and ankles, coldness of her back against the moving vehicle, sounds of the street, the duct tape over her mouth and the suffocative bag over her head. Her first instinctive was to shout for help but she fought that desire because she realized playing dead was her best option right now. Even if through the bag and the tape she somehow did manage to shout no one will hear her in the noisy busy street.

So she sat still. Listened intently on finding a clue for where they were taking her or who they were. But all she could hear was the sounds of a busy road. No body in the vehicle she was in talked and she did not feel the presence of a person near her. Maybe she could straighten her leg a little bit that was killing her because of numbness. She waited a little more time to make sure their attention was away from her. Then she slowly straightened her leg.

"The bitch is up" shouted someone just beside her. Erin swore under her breath with frustration. She had ruined her chance.

"Give another dose" someone else said from the front of the vehicle. Then someone grabbed her by her neck and pushed her head on to something that felt like fabric. The smell was all too familiar and she very well knew what it was. It was morphine and she drifted slowly to the blind comfort.

* * *

"Jay" Harvey said as he sat up .

"Shhhh"

Jay silenced him in response. "you need to pretend unconscious as long as you can"

"why"

"because they are going to start your session as soon as you wake up"

"so they need the password"

"yep"

"promise me Jay, no matter what they do to me, you will not give that to them" .

Although Harvey waited for a response Jay was silent. "Jay"

"we need to come up with something" Jay finally said.

"Like what, don't we already have our backs against the wall"

"I was wondering, they have only one pod here, it is active, the one I couldn't lock with the kill password."

"and"

"both the other pods must be with the labs. They are locked and neither party can do anything untill all three pods are together and unlocked by me. Jay halsteds biometrics are also needed so they are going to want me physically"

"and"

"what if I make a deal, agree to give the password. Go there and use the second kill pass word to completely kill the bomb. Remember the second kill password totally deactivates the bombs by burning the circuitry."

"what if you dont get to do that, its too much of a risk"

"we have to try"

"what if I climb up that dirty air vent and go for help"

"that's risky too"

"okay, then why don't you do your thing and I do my thing"

* * *

Harvey ducked down as much as he could as the air vent became narrower and narrower. Pushing past rat poop, animal skeletons and webs and allsorts of disgusting things he could imagine in an air vent in an abandoned prison he moved forward with sheer will. He didn't even know where the hell the air vent was leading him. Making snap decisions on whether to take left or right turn at junctions he was relieved to finally see a light a few meters ahead.

Making the least possible noise he moved forward as fast as he could. Turns out he was on the right path. The vent ended with an old metal net that covered the air vent opening. They had been kept in the basement cells of a prison which was why it was so dark in there. The air vent protruded out of the basement structure to bring out fresh air in. Harvey took a few minuits before he yanked at the metal net to make sure no one was around. The old and net gave out easily at his strong arms. Then he tentatively placed one step outside in to the night. And then another. He was still inside prison premises but he saw an opening through the broken fence. He could hear the river flowing down. But as the fresh air hit him all the bile he had been holding came out like a tsunami. There was no way he could stop it. He let it out with a bark and through the dry heaves he wished to god that no body will hear him. He ran at the opening even before his vomit stopped. It was all over him but this was no time to be a clean freak. If he made it out he could save both their lives including chicago from a pulse bomb attack.

Apparently god was not on his side today, as he hasn't been with him for the past week. He saw a prison van come through the gate and stopped abruptly. Harvey still kept running. Then he heard someone yell behind him to stop. But he didn't. He just has to crawl through the opening and they wont risk following him after that. There were boats in the river. Tourists taking boat rides were there. If he could only just pass that fence.

Harvey heard the roar of a gun. He didn't even look back. He then felt both the impact and the familiar pain of being shot. This was not his first time so as he hit a metal pole of the fence with a thud and slid down to the ground the agonizing pain eating inside him became more and more prominent. He could see the shooter and two others running at him.

They were getting close. Harvey closed his eyes and opened them accepting the pain. Just like he was taught when he was under training. Just like he did when he was first shot in Afghanistan. He concentrated on it and accepted it. It was the only way to not go insane with it.

They were only a few meters from him. Harvey could hear the river flowing. Maybe his redemption was lying at the bottom of that river waiting for him. He couldn't save his brother. Now he failed his friend. Most importantly he failed his city. He willed himself to stand up. But standing up to his full height was out of his league. His legs gave in but he somehow crawled forward, Forward and out of the hole in the fence finally. Then as if on autopilot he rolled down the river bank and plunged in to the cold river.

* * *

The door to the cell opened and Jay waited in the corner. He was ready for the drama there would be when they get to know Harvey was not inside the cell. Whether his friend actually made it outside was a different matter.

The now familiar figure of big D stepped in. But to Jay's dismay he wasn't looking for his friend and started talking straight up.

"Captain gave me an advice, said that you two are highly trained people that will not bend at torture and I believed him. So I took a different approach. I have something that will truly inspire you to reconsider my request. "

He then stepped out and stood at the door. Two men dragged something and pushed it inside his cell. Jay couldn't make it through the darkness but to him it did look like a body. He shivered at the thought that this could be harvey's body.

"Sorry the delivery was delayed. We had to handle your friend" he said as he closed the door with a loud bang. For Jays annoyance he was left in the darkness once again. He chose to stay quiet for a little bit of time. Just so he could calm down his overworked nerves. As his quriosity pushed him he stepped closer to the bulk that was thrown in to the room. When his feet hit the thing he bent down and prodded it. His hand first hit on something...he quickly took away his hands astonished. He knew what they were, they were breasts of a woman. He knew the all too familiar rims of a bra and the soft cushion feeling that followed. But before he could fully process what his touch told him a kick came at his groin and he was thrown aback with the impact. He leaned back on the wall covering his groin that was in pain. He definetely didn't expect that and the bulk was definetely was not Harvey.

"Don't touch me again" the bag threatened.

Jay forgot his pain.

He knew the voice.

His mouth gaped in the darkness and the realisation brought tears to his eyes. So they know his biggest weakness. Thay have touched the most sensitive part of his life other than his love for his brother. And now the most important person in his life will suffer and it was all because he failed his mission.

Through the falling tears he quickly regained his senses. He is a trained soldier. He cannot break. And his mission was certainly not a failure yet because he hasn't given up hopes to turn the tables on the masterminds behind this. So he finally drew up a breath that he had forgotten to take and found his voice.

"Er..."


	5. Chapter 5

Hey readers,

Thank you all for the reviews and sooo sorry for the late update. Life got in the way, you know what I mean. ...

 **CHAPTER 05**

They took a little more than the standard hug time given the depth of the situation before Jay placed a trail of kisses from her forehead to the neck ending with a passionate kiss to her lips. This did a good job taking away the pain of removing the duct tape over Erin's lips. They felt inseparable and despite all factors against them Erin felt safe in his arms. She wanted to continue the embrace but Jays shaky voice broke her out of the reverie.

"Erin, I'm so sorry, I'm so god damn sorry "

Erin removed herself from his embrace and cupped his face between her palms.

"Its' Okay" she said as she stroked his cheek with her thumb like she used to. Instead of the familiar sense of his cheek she felt the growing beard and what she suspected to be the wetness of a single tear. How she wished she could see his face ! but the blinding dark was between them.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt ? "

"I'm fine" she said and felt Jays tensed body relax . "What is going on Jay ? "

"Its a long story " Jay said as he sat comfortably with his back against the cold wall and guided Erin to sit next to him. "But in short, we failed our mission because captain Reed decided to switch sides and now a pulse bomb is in three pieces between the army lab and these bastards. Who ever gets to collect all three pieces is up to me because I managed to lock the bombs with my password."

Erin gaped her mouth because of what she heard. She could not imagine the burden Jay must be having on his shoulders. In a matter of second she put two and two together and realized why she was here. She was here as bait and she only felt sorry for Jay. What they were meant to go through next and how Jay will handle that was beyond her comprehension.

"Er I swear, I'd just kill my self than let them hurt you" Jay said as if he read her mind.

"Jay" was all Erin could manage to say at the helplessness in his voice. But she knew this was the time she had to be strong for him. So she voiced her honest opinion for him. "You can't consider me more important than the whole of Chicago. If it comes to it, you have to be prepared to give me up. You need to know I'm prepared for that"

"I know" Jay gave her an amused look. Knowing the tough patriot woman in her he could not expect any less from her. But even the idea of watching her being hurt shook him to the core. "its a miracle I'm not going crazy" He said as he messaged his temples to relieve the growing headache.

Erin couldn't agree more and she could feel the tension running through Jay. She knew what he was thinking. If they start torturing her or worse for his password so they could activate the pulse bomb and destroy Chicago, what should he do ? Save Chicago or save her? Is that even an option?

But the uncomfortable silence was not for long as the door opened to the cell. Two men got Jay up to his feet, cuffed his hands and dragged him out of the room. Another stood a few feet away from Erin with his gun pointed at her. Erin could only stare as the door closed behind Jays apologetic glance. He was truly sorry for dragging her in to this mess. The door opened again and another stood blocking it while another one came in taking a syringe out of his pocket. She suddenly realized they were not here to just stand and guard her.

Jay did not protest his captors. He was not going to make empty threats. He was better than that. So instead he honed his senses to the world outside. Although he could see absolutely nothing through the blinds he listened intently. He was stood after a few Minutes and a door opened with a loud crack. He was dragged in and his blinds were removed to an audience of gang members and his former captain.

" sit " the huge man known to Jay as "big d" commanded. One of his men dragged a wooden chair and pushed Jay down by his shoulders. Jay sat, his icy glare, the only weapon he had right then was piercing through his former captain who in turn looked away.

"If you promise to behave, I promise in return nothing will happen to you or your girl. You should know there are two guns pointed at her right now. If you misbehave they will take care of her. And for the next vacancy I will drag your brother and his beautiful girlfriend here. Are we in agreement?

Jay nodded promptly as he had no doubt big d was not making empty threats and the man behind him returned to remove his cuff. His hands were free and he so wanted to punch a hole right through him just for dragging Erin here. But his rage was clearly not the answer. So he forced himself to think tactically. Invent a way to turn the tables at these bastards.

"Believe me, I do not underestimate you. Your captain has provided me with enough information on you to not make that mistake. If I had the slightest doubt that you can get away from here I will not free your hands. Infact your hands are free as a gesture of good will"

A pregnant pause passed between the parties and Jay made himself comfortable in the chair sensing what was coming. This man needed him. Which is why he was keeping him alive and Erin was his leverage.

"you need me" Jay said through gritted teeth when he understood that the silence was suppose to make him feel threatened. He has had enough and was not going to let them continue on the mind game. "and you have the leverage to make me do what ever you want because I would do anything for her. So cut the frigging speech and get to the point"

The huge man stood in front of a light table.

"fair enough, couldn't expect anything less from a man with your set of records" he said almost admiringly and waved a hand at Jay to come closer. Jay stood up and walked to him without a delay .

"I need you to retrieve something for me in return for her life. This is a detailed plan of the lab and its security plans, cameras and everything someone would want if he is to steal something from the lab. I already have a tech guy who can hack in to the camera system and play it while you are on to it. And although I have a dozen men who would volunteer to do this for me I cannot think of a better man than you Jay Halstead. Because you know why, you were part of the team who originally created the foolproof security plan of the lab, so only one of them would know the back doors and loopholes. And only a man of your agility would be able jump over those fences created by yourself"

Jay blinked to make sure what he was hearing. He came here to receive the threat to give away his password for Erin's life. What he heard was an admirable request to steal something from the lab. And Jay had no doubt about what they wanted.

"you want me to steal the remaining two parts of the bomb and bring them here so you could have the complete bomb" Jay asked amused. "now how the hell do I manage that?

But the man did not look amused. "That's not all, you missed the rest of it, the part where you use your password to reactivate the assembled bomb and successfully detonate. And maybe we will give the two love birds enough time to get away from Chicago before we blow it up.

A chuckle escaped Jay upon hearing the last part of the proposal. "go to hell" he muttered at the end of it. Big D looked at his man behind Jay and gave him a nod.

"I thought the idea of having your true love hurt would bring sense to you but it seems like you need demonstration, in which case you need this."

Jay looked at him puzzled as he placed a syringe on Jays palm.

"Oh! don't look so horrified at it, you should smile because that is the antidote, the poison was just injected to your girlfriend"

Before the sentence finished Jay automatically turned to run to Erin. but two men grabbed him stopping in mid air, pushed him to the wall and pointed a gun at his head.

"You need to give it some time before the poison take full effect on her and it will swell her trachea and choke her to death" Big D said circling Jay. A triumphant smile danced on his lips and the only thing stopped Jay from struggling the two men and be free to run was the gun. Because he knew he had to be alive if he is to save Erin.

"shall we ? " Big D said as he took the lead and opened the door. The men grabbing Jay cuffed him again and dragged him back to the Cell. Jay could see a bright light has been placed in the cell. His eyes immediately looked for Erin and noticed her sitting slumped in one corner of the cell. She looked defeated. Her hair was a mess, her T shirt sleeve was torn and Jay could see she was in a struggle - one that she lost. Her eyes made contact with him and it looked like she was apologizing from him.

In fact it was the first time he saw her since his redeployment and their eyes observed each other in hunger taking each other.

"The light will stay in as complementary so you could witness what your stupid decision is putting her through."

Big D snapped his fingers and everyone left the room. Jays Hands were free again but the said antidote was taken from him. As Big D passed him he waved it in the air. " Just shout out loud when you change your mind and I'll come with this and an Oxygen tank" he said as he himself closed the door.

Jay ran to Erin. They hugged tight and hr felt perspiration on her skin.

" Jay I'm sorry, I tried to stop it but I couldn't. I don't want to be your weak point so please go to the other corner and don't look at me again so you don't have to witness anything."

Jay sighed in defeat but took her by her arms.

"Erin stop, I'm not going any where"

"Jay please" She begged.

"Erin, we are in this together"

Erin pulled herself from Jay and sat against the wall. There was an uncomfortable silence between them. When she saw Jay was not moving away from her she finally gave up and signed Jay to sit next to her and as he did he saw the puncture mark on her arm through the torn T shirt sleeve. His thumb instinctively ran over the reddened area of her skin.

"They said it would take at least twenty minutes to start feeling the effect of choking" she said to him and immediately regretted saying it so raw when she felt how he stiffened.

"How do we stop this" Jay asked as Erin leaned on to him and her head rested comfortably on his shoulder. " If it is not you, next will be Will and Nina, It wont stop until I give in or go crazy or just kill myself somehow, and even if I die they wont stop until they find someone who can crack the code and rewrite it to their will"

"you seriously considered your death?

"If my death could solve all these problems , then yes I did considered that, but they already have a few hackers working at breaking the code, though unsuccessful so far...I don't know how long Chicago will be lucky. I wan to stop them permanently"

" Jay can you start from the beginning, I have twenty minuted to kill anyways" Erin requested.

Although Jay didn't like the idea of the twenty minutes theory he didn't much had a choice, besides he thought it would be a good idea to go through what happened so his brain could maybe show him the directions to the right path.

"The bomb was made by two scientists who worked for the US defense research. They were kidnapped and for six months army intelligence searched for them before they got intel that directed them to Syria. They found out the two were kidnapped by an extremist group for the exact purpose of building a pulse bomb to attack US cities and they were successful with building it. We were to infiltrate their lab and retrieve the bomb and the scientists. The mission was a success until we were on our way to deliver it to the Chicago labs. "

"why the Chicago labs? why didn't you just destroy it right there?"

"Because although the bomb was built on the same concept as the US pulse bombs, their programming and the design was totally different, So the Army decided to study it rather than destroy it. But it was risky because they didn't know whom to trust because from the very beginning the intel was assumed to be compromise. So that's where the ex-ranger team came in to play. And a third party lab was transformed to a fortress by our team so it will be kept away from the reach of a traitor within the army. "

"okay"

"we were using a trail road to transport the bomb, away from the people and at the mid point of our journey, Reed instructed us to stop and he said that a separate unit was to take over from there for security reasons. I was so happy because I could finally go home." Jay grinned remembering the moment. But from there onward it was all down hill and his smile disappeared.

"They followed all the procedures properly when the handover happened and we had nothing to suspect. Our team had twelve and we started leaving in three vehicles. Me, Harvey and Mandel was in the last vehicle. We just started the engine and that's when I identified one of them. I knew him to be a gang member and there was no way he was a ranger. I knew something was wrong and I got off the vehicle to talk to Reed. He knew that I identified him and gun fire started immediately. We were outnumbered and I knew we were gonna loose soon. So I asked Mandel to cover me and I managed to lock the parts which was the detonator and the second part that was the pulse generator. But I could not go to the other. I remember Mandel got hit by a bullet and I pulled him to cover and suddenly it all went blank. I now think Reed came behind me and knocked me out" Jays hand involuntarily went to the back of his neck, the pain was still there.

"He might have decided not to kill me when he saw that I had locked the bomb and he was gonna need me to unlock. When I woke up, I was here with Harvey. We didn't know how long we were out. And we received food and water everyday ever since. When Reed decided to show up to ask for the password, Harvey thought going up that air vent was a better option than being their leverage against me. I think they found him and... ." Jay could not manage to finish his sentence, he felt like he was trapped inside an ice berg, the cold slowly attacking his heart. Mandel was shot right in front of him and his brother Harvey ...well he didn't even know what happened to him. He felt Erin's body unusually warming up, like she was having fever so he passed the water bottle to Erin who was still leaning against his shoulder.

"I think they shot him and he fell in to the river " Erin said after she gulped down some water. She felt her body warming up and was sure she was already having high fever. her immune systems response to what ever was injected to her. To her further displease she felt herself a little short of breath. She closed her eyes and opened them and saw Jays Green eyes staring at her.

"you are feeling it ? Jay asked rather stated.

" I'm a little short of breath, not even near choking" Erin said managing a smile.

" you are speaking as if you are going to have cold and fever" Jay said in disbelief. How could she be so calm full at the face of death. He has seen it in trained soldiers and it wasn't a foreign feeling for himself. But Erin is no ranger.

Jay felt his heart filling up with pride for his girl for how brave she is. He always knew she was, he has witnessed what a bad ass detective she is. But this was a new level of bravery and he could not help but kiss her.

"you are the bravest girl I've ever seen" he said to her. " I'm so proud of you, and I need you coz I don't know if something happens to you what I will become, But I promise you one thing, I will not let these bastards win"

Erin looked at Jay with awe. "well I'm flattered as much as I am about to choke" she said but thought of turning the direction of their talk because of two reasons. One - she was about to cry and she didn't want to , not right now because her tears might weaken Jay. She wanted to put up a brave face so he would think straight and find a way to solve this mess. Two - her hand was softly placed on Jays chest and she could practically feel his heart thumping threatening to burst out of his chest. If she let him go on in the direction their talk was going, and if she tell him how she feels, how much she love him and how much she wanted him to move in with her, how much she wanted to have a life with him, maybe have kids and grand children too and that was the only thing she was gonna miss if she dies...she thought Jay might have a heart attack. So she pretended like she didn't hear the warmth in his words. She pretended like she didn't see the tears in _his_ eyes...

"I was saying, I think they shot Harvey, I'm sorry Jay"

Jay let out a breath and stopped his tears from falling. He could read in to Erin like she was a book. he knew what she was doing and decided to play along, just like he did with Harvey when he decided the only way to deal with his twin brother Mandel's death was to pretend like he didn't even exist.

"how do you know?"

" I was conscious just before they stopped the vehicle here, and I heard the sounds of a gate opening and then some one shouted 'stop' and a gunshot followed with a plunging in to water sound. I assume it was Harvey. He maybe made it out of the vent but not too far"

Jay swallowed hard. He didn't know how the fire exchange ended or how the secondary blast unit ended with the gang and the other two units ended at the hands of the army, he didn't know because he blacked out. During the two weeks the team of twelve were together for the mission they had gotten closer. They had depended on each other for their lives, was at the verge of death and had came out of it alive because they were there for each other; made sure everybody goes home at the end. It hurt jay beyond comprehension when he thought how many of them would be alive by now. And for the first time he felt guilt rising from the bottom of his heart.

" The ...um... the system in the bomb is designed to act in two ways, sleep mode and kill mode. We activate each mode using the type of passwords we use. Thing is, if I used the kill mode passwords to lock the bomb it kind of destroys the circuitry, makes the bomb useless. And the labs won't be able to learn a thing. So I used the sleep mode password because never in my imagination I though it would be possible for the bomb to be in the wrong hands. "

"Jay, you should be glad you managed to lock it at all in the middle of a fire exchange, You did the rational thing, you put it in to sleep until the fire exchange was over, you didn't know that Reed was behind all of this"

"maybe, but now I have created myself an impossible situation, when someone uses the sleep mode password, he is the only person who can reactivate the system, and that too by using both password and a scan of my retina. if not for that safety Reed could override my password."

"I understand" Erin said as Jay paused for breath.

"Harvey thought, the only way out of this is by getting out side help, that's why he decided to try the air vent. I thought by staying in i can try to screw up their plans by agreeing to give them the password and then use the kill password instead. But now they have an inside guy at the lab, hackers at their disposal and they are gonna get the remaining units with or without me, maybe I should have listened to Harvey"

"I'm sure when Harvey got caught, he thought he should have listened to you" Erin said trying to lighten the mood because she could sense the guilt creeping from jays words. But Jay knew what she was doing, trying to be funny so he would feel better when she couldn't even breath properly. But he turned his thoughts in to words.

"I've been thinking, getting out side help and screwing up their plans from inside could both be achieved if I some how get the hell out of here"

"and the only way to do is by agreeing to rob the lab" Erin protested.

"Yep" Jay said as he lifted his arm and took Erin under the crook of his neck and she snuggled in.

"I wouldn't advice on that because when Al talked to a senior guy in the Pentagon, they were considering seizing your properties because they think you are behind all this, so if by any chance you get caught how on earth will you prove your innocence"

"what" Jay shouted incredulously. he could not believe his luck. Here he was fighting to save his city but his own people were considering him a traitor.

"sorry, they were considering seizing your properties"

"That bastard Reed..." Jay spat as he clenched his fists.

" So my own won't trust me, but what if I can get to our team" Jay wondered aloud quickly dissipating his anger and focusing at the actual matter at hand.

"oh shit why didn't I think about it before, " Erin smacked her forehead . Maybe Jays idea will work."Mouse is watching the lab"

Jay turned and sat facing her curious at what she was saying.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you what happened at my end. We had received intel from one of Hanks CI's that something really important is to be transported from Chicago labs. We interviewed the lab manager who declined any answers because they were classified at pentagon level. Later that day we were informed that you were MIA and I ...was on a spree driving around the town to calm down" she stopped momentarily and Jay realized how much his departure had impacted her. But Erin recovered quickly because she was feeling a burn inside her chest. She wanted to let Jay know everything that could help him.

"That's when I saw captain Reed waiting to enter the lab, I was curious because although I didn't know how to chain up all the pieces I felt that they were all in the same chain. The Labs, pentagon, captain reed... So I asked mouse to do a full search on captain Reed and the lab manager, Mouse started right away and the last I heard from him he had hacked in to the Lab's camera system. Maybe you can get him to see you."

Erin felt the sudden surge of pain in her and automatically she clutched on to her chest. The world was spinning around her and she felt Jays strong arms grab her and lie her down on the floor. She finally had to admit the pain and the lack of breath which she had been denying for Jay's sake. She heard Jay shout something and bang on the cell door and she tried to fight the darkness that was crawling behind her eyes. " not again" she said as she remembered how she fell unconscious when they abducted her and not being in control was a feeling she hated.

she then heard the cell door open and through her bleary eyes she saw some one really large come to her and injected her with a syringe.

"not again" she she thought...again.

Next she felt the only good thing she had that day. Jay's embrace. She felt him taking her on to his lap and his hands swiftly ran through her hair. If she was going to die, she thought...this was the best moment. The burn in her chest was going away and she felt at ease. she felt like she could breath again. It was the best thing next to having Jay with her. She felt fine and that was when she gave away her stubborn fight against the darkness. It wrapped her...she felt the cold, but she felt fine...


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello readers,**

Thanks A LOT for the reviews and for everyone who read my fic because honestly I thought people had forgotten about it because I took such a long time to update. I cant moderate the reviews and they only come in to my mail. Something is wrong with the site. But thanks anyway.

 **CHAPTER 06**

"You could have avoided all that pain if you gave the password the first time I asked you"

Jay heard Captain Reed's voice from behind him. The man had come in to the cell with a syringe in his hand lazily trudging while Jay shouted at him to hurry up with the antidote loudly agreeing to do what ever they ask.

Jay pretended to not hear his words but bit his lips to stop him from running his own mouth fearing it would only result in some more harsh treatments for Erin. He slowly ran his fingers through Erin's hair and was relieved to see her breathing normally. he could see her falling in to sleep out of pure exhaustion. trails of sweat ran from her head to her chest and her T shirt was completely drenched with it.

" you know we made it easy for them by bringing it in to our country with army protection. If they had to do it them selves how hard could it have been for them!" A sick chuckle vibrated on the walls of the cell. "So why not complete the rest of, y' know blast the thing and maybe we'll be doing a help to some sore souls like me"

Surges of fire went through Jay when he heard how easy it was for this man to talk destruction of his own people. He was totally not who he used to be. Captain Reed was the best mentor Jay had ever had. Although they were both great Jay could cleanly place Captain Reed and Voight in two different positions when it came to personal traits. They were both good at what they did, protective of their teams, but Captain Reed did it in a more fatherly way, more fatherly than his own father. If Voight was tough love then Captain Reed was all motherly to the young soldiers who were adjusting to the tough life at the army. His personality made his soldiers do what they did with will and not just for the sake of the command. Reed wasn't the kind of person who hid in his bunker, he was always out there with his soldiers, in training, in down time and in war. He was there for Jay every step of the way and now Jay couldn't even believe he ever knew this man. Like a switch was turned on, a totally different human had emerged from the same body. Maybe the sensitive man in him didn't sustain the damage his family faced. Jay was pretty sure Doctor Charles would name his mentality with something he cannot pronounce but definitely the tall man with the unprecedented personality was sick in his mind.

Jay slowly kept Erin's head on the cold floor and walked to face his former supervisor.

"Sir" Jay called him with all the respect he could summon, to give him one last chance. "you need help, so let me"

"I'm beyond that point" came a stern reply. Previous chuckles had disappeared to the oblivion replaced with true rage.

"What do you want from all of this, what will you get?" asked Jay when he realized he couldn't get thru to Reed. It was a familiar feeling for him. Felt just like he was back in interrogation room with a suspect who wouldn't talk. For a moment it seemed Reed contemplated the answer to what Jay asked. And for a moment Jay had the slightest of the hope that maybe Reed was rethinking his purpose in this.

"I want revenge, Biggy wants to regain his reputation, which he lost of course because of your undercover gig, and the other party wants us to pay for simply stealing their bomb, _their_ bomb. Can you imagine how we would feel one of our complex army research was stolen ? we would nuke them won't we, they are doing the same. "

" it does not justify what you are doing"

"we stole that bomb and brought on to our soil, our researchers probably will make it more deadly, make many of it and then use it to kill its original owners. Isn't it the end game? Jay is your skull that thick? why the hell do they want to examine it, they are going to make a new weapon out of its technology. And when that weapon kills all those innocent children and men and women out there, you are part of it too. How does it make you feel ? So they decide to take a life for life. whats more justifiable than that."

"If that bomb goes off here" Jay said as he got more closer to Reed that their faces were within inches of each other, like the closeness would make Reed understand what Jay wanted him to realize. Can you imagine the destruction it will leave, can you imagine how many people this will kill? the chaos it will cause, the cyber attacks that will follow, all the patients that will be dead in the hospital, the road accidents? You are part of it and how would that make you feel? Jay made clear his argument. His pointer finger tapping at Reeds Chest where his heart resides.

"So its OK to unleash all that destruction and chaos on someone else land?

"You don't know that for sure" Jay shouted impatiently. He so badly wanted to talk sense in to this man but it was like singing in to a deaf man's ears.

"I know, Okay I know" This time it was Reeds loud voice that echoed through the walls. " because if it is such an evil bomb, why didn't they allow us to destroy it as soon as we found it, instead they want to _examine_ it, for what? to make new kind of pancakes?

At this Jay fell silent, there was a truth in it. True, but killing in response for killing was not justifiable in his head. It had to stop somewhere.

" believe me Jay, I-feel-fine" said Reed as his pointer finger tapped on Jays chest and Jay fell back a feet. There was a moment of silence but Reed started to speak again as he place a few rolls of blue prints on Jays hands.

"right now I want you to take these and devise that miraculous plan of yours , caption ' how to steal a fifty kilo bomb from a highly guarded military facility" The sarcastic smile that followed was unnerving and Jay knew his captain was not a fan of having to steal from the lab.

"you know the same security plan, you were there with me when our team restructured the lab's security, so why me and not you " Jay asked. He knew the admiring request that came from Big D had something else behind it.

" do you really think biggy wants you to do this because you are the best?"

"Do you take me that silly? really? furrowed Jay folding his hands in protest.

" he is not sending his men because he know you will definitely set up a trap in your plan. Honestly Jay, I don't believe this will work out nor does big d. He is sending you on a suicidal mission, he is making you pay for locking up the bomb. May be you'll make it because I know how stubborn you could be when you want to get something done or maybe you wont. Either way you need to keep mum if you get caught. Big D will keep Erin alive until you keep mum and until you sit in the electric chair or die of old age in a prison"

If there was a pinch of hope in Jay to turn this man to good, it vanished in a heart beat upon hearing the words. Although he knew in his heart what this man needed was Dr. Charles,he was also beginning to understand that captain was now beyond help. He was too far gone to be brought back to the land of compassion. It was time to protect others from him.

So Jay took a step close to him closing the gap between them, threateningly close. "And what If I refuse again, you kill us and you get nothing" he asked.

"Son you think we are sane enough to kill you or her? she has been very useful so far, y' know, if you think this could be so easily solved by just death, then let me remind you there are things that could be done to a beautiful woman that are worse than death"

Jay knew what his former captain meant, he needed no elaboration as Reed's canine eyes danced over Erin's sleeping figure. What Jay did not know was what took him over. A totally unforeseen sucker punch landed on the captain in a split second with all Jay's might. Captain Reed was completely floored. He was struggling to breath. Jay almost landed another kick on him targeting his rib cage but the captain caught it with lightning speed. Next moment each was grabbing to the other in a locked position, there was a delay of a second from both fighters, each weighing in on their position. Jay wasn't planning on this, it was impulse, it was the rage that washed him over at this ruthless man's future plans for the woman he loved. Now that he was locked by his own mentor in a posture impossible for him to move Jay started second guessing his move. He knew he was weak, he remembered feeling dizzy every now and then because of deprivation of sunlight. His opponent was good eight inches taller than him and was stronger than him. And if he is to succeed, he had no more than thirty seconds to over power his captain before the gang members flood in to the cell when they hear the struggle. So in that split second Jay realized that this is the game changing moment. The soldier and the cop in him worked at lightning speed calculating what his next moves should be in this fight and after this fight.

But his split second delay became his mistake and in an instance his knee was locked by Reed and he felt the sudden jerk and the surge of pain that erupted from his knee. Before he fully registered the pain Jay sprang in to action catapulting everything in him, his will power and the physical strength. Because if he allowed his body to acknowledge the pain then his body will slow him down and that was not what he needed now. On the other hand the captain made the mistake of underestimating his student, he knew Jay was weak, he thought the knee jerk would subdue him. What he didn't know was how much this soldier turned cop was matured as a fighter during his cop life. They were now at each others throats trying to squeeze the life out of them, inevitably staring in to each other.

"you are forgetting that I taught you how to fight, You can never beat me" Captain tried the emotional aspect speaking with what voice left in him thanks to the grip Jay had on him, when he felt how strong Jay was holding.

" I remember everything, but I learned a thing or two at the CPD" Jay said through gritted teeth. He pushed all his strength in to his next move. Pushed the captain away from him releasing both of them and while the captain tried to balance himself from falling down Jay doubled over and pushed him, kicked his groin and knee in a series. Reed fell down unable to balance himself. Jay straddled the fallen man, grabbed his head and smacked it on the stone floor twice. Blood splattered on the floor and Jay quickly fell away from the captain in disgust and exhausted.

Before he even put his butt on the floor he was pushed to the wall by someone. The rough wall scathed Jays face. Large hands that grabbed him didn't let him move an inch and he was too weak and dizzy to fight it. Not that he intended to anyway.

"Get him to a hospital, make up a story" Jay heard his captor shout at his men.

"what the fuck did you do" he shouted at Jay. "How the hell are you going to go in to the lab now, he was your way in"

Jay turned around turning his back to the wall, sending Big d a good few feet aback.

Jay collected the blue prints scattered on the floor and stationed him self down on the floor and opened the blue prints that were so familiar to him. Big D looked at him unsure of what to do. Jays mind had its gears working on his next move. When he came to a conclusion he looked up at his captor.

"You don't need him, I'm all yours "


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07**

Ruzek's been watching his boss's room fixedly and the fact that his boss didn't notice his stare was disturbing him.

When he came in to the precinct in the morning, only Voight, Al and a sleepy looking Mouse was present. Ruzek was getting his desk ready and pulling unfinished paper work out from his locker when an overworked Will Halstead was ushered in by Platt. She exchanged a few words with Voight before she left Will in Voight's room. Soon in to their talk Voight asked Al to join them and Ruzek felt very left out. But what bothered him even more was his gut feeling that the talk was definitely about Jay.

Was he dead?Ruzek cursed himself for even doubting that but the facial expressions of those inside Voight's room left little room for him to think otherwise. Antonio and Kevin who came together stopped at the top of the stairs holding tight on to their coffee mugs.

"what's happening?" Kevin asked hoping Ruzek would have answers.

"Don't know, Doc came like he's seen a ghost and they keep talking" Ruzek stood up next to Kevin forming a united front of left out people.

"And Erin is uncharacteristically late" came observation from Mouse.

Antonio thought the better of it and took his first step to go inside Voight's room uninvited. He couldn't be left alone if it is about Jay. Jay is his responsibility. Although he had full faith in Jay to be able to handle himself, Antonio brought him to the unit and he couldn't help the feelings of protectiveness. But the threesome inside the room stood up and the blood drained out of their faces when Voight called the team to form a close circle.

"What Doctor Halstead is going to share with us now should be kept within this room" Voight's raspy voice informed the team in no uncertain terms what they were bound to. " after you hear him, you can decide whether you want in or out of what follows"

With Voight's nod Will started talking. He could see the baffled faces of his brothers team members. He knew they were fellow sufferers of the hollowness left behind by Jay. He waited a few seconds to gather his thoughts and showed his audience of baffled faces what he had inside his palm.

" A ring" Ruzek was quick to exclaim. " That was Jays, I've seen it before"

"It belonged to my maternal grand dad, he passed it down to my mom. She considered it her lucky charm" Will explained. "When Jay was getting ready for his first tour in Afghanistan, mom gave it to him and he never removed it ever since. It was his memory of two people he loved most" Will lifted his head and saw the pained faces of his brothers friends and took a long breath to hold up the tears that were at the brink of falling down. The ring was bringing him back too many memories, mom, grand dad, and Jay - three people Will Halstead loved most.

"Last night, we received a patient. He was transferred from a local hospital at river side because the patient needed more advanced treatments. He was shot , drowned, had hypothermia, severe blood loss, was unconscious and at the risk of slipping in to a coma."

The description left the team feeling even worse. "wow, that's er.. quite the list, is he still alive" Ruzek expressed his feelings in to words.

"yeah, word is he is getting better"

" What do you mean, word is" Antonio questioned trying to tie a link between the ring and the mystery patient.

" I had to go through his belongings as part of the patient registration. I found Army issue cargo pants, T shirt with a bullet hole and this" He said lifting up the ring. "He was military, and when we informed the military they were quick to identify him. Upon special request from defense department, the ICU ward he is in was emptied, other patients were moved in to a different ward. There are guards at the door, and there is a dedicated military doctor for him. No one is allowed in or to talk to him. He will be moved to an army hospital once he is stable enough"

Will took a breath and took the silence in the room to be his cue to continue. " I tried to talk to the doctor wishing he will share something out of professional courtesy...nothing " Will looked up at the people in front of him emptily knowing that if there is anyone in the world who could do something for Jay, it was them.

" How did you keep the ring with you" Antonio questioned although he had a guess." shouldn't it be with the patient ?"

"I skipped it from the form" Will said like it was the simplest thing in the world. He put the ring in to his coat pocket protectively and stood up straight. When he couldn't ignore the look from Antonio like Will was caught using his fingers to count, he decided to defend his decision. "I don't care if I get fired or go to jail for it. This ring belongs to Jay" Will said matter-of-factly. "And till Jay comes, it stays with me".

His hand went in to his coat pocket and felt the ring as if to prove himself what he was hoping for will become real in future. The room only became quieter as wills last words slipped his mouth with a shudder." Its not gonna be lost in some container with the people who would accuse Jay a traitor, And Jay IS coming back, in case any of you have doubts... I know that, I can feel it. He is alive somewhere"

"No body's doubting that Will, you know that, we are all in the same page on this, Jay is our family too" Voight said as he placed a comforting hand on Will's back.

"this guy must be someone from Jay's team, he must know something about him, you said he was found in the river , right? " Kevin asked breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"yeah"

"If he assume he was swimming for his life or he was thrown in to the river after he was shot, how long could he survive in the water with a gun shot wound, Can't we get an idea about the location where he was pushed or jumped in to the river?"

"I think we can, we have to take in to account the freezing water, bleeding wound, how fast he could have swam while wounded, the fact he must have floated after he fell unconscious, the tide, et cetera..."

"if doc think you can get a location I say you should start working on it right now, mouse pull the maps, work with Doc to pin a location" Voight started commanding. "but before we go on to this, I want you to listen to me very carefully" He said as all ears perked at him because they knew very well finding Jay was personal to all of them, and making any case personal was never a good thing for cops.

"This case will not go on the board, we are stepping in to prohibited territory" Voight observed the faces of his team before he started speaking again. He needed to know if everyone was on board with him. " So if there is anyone who doesn't want to risk it, you are welcome to enjoy a leave of absence."

They looked like they were being ridiculed by their boss.

"when has Jay ever hesitated to put himself out there for us boss? We are officially offended" Ruzek complained voicing everyone.

"Alright then, we'll start with the location " Voight gave it the go. "Nothing goes on the board, nothing leaves this precinct"

Mouse who was a silent observer of all this put his hand up to ask a question. " Boss, where is Erin?"

" She wanted a personal" Voight answered with a bit of a defeat in his voice. He was reconsidering his decision to let Erin and Jay date. Voight knew they were good to each other, but ever since they started dating a small fear always lurked inside him doubting Erin's ability to cope if something happens to Jay or if they broke up . Now he felt like his bad dream have started its manifestation in real life.

"can't be" Mouse said and everyone tuned in to this new development.

"After everything, I think its possible that she needs a day off to...process" Al stated wondering where this was leading.

"Can't be, because last night when I spoke to her she couldn't wait till its morning to come to work to analyse the video recordings" Mouse said defiantly. "she can't have asked for a leave all of a sudden"

'I think he has a point, she was on to something yesterday, she thought she had something on Jay. I don't know if the word is right, but she was actually excited" Antonio joined in.

" Elaborate please" Voight intently listened in and mouse started stuttering not knowing if it was his place to reveal what Erin asked him to handle personally.

"I don't know if ...I ...should"

"Mouse, yesterday this was personal to you and Erin, maybe Antonio, But now we all are in this, so stop bickering and just say it"

Mouse looked at Antonio who nodded in return.

"she asked me to look in to Captain and the Lab manager because she saw captain Reed at the Chicago lab entrance. She said he was surprised to see her drive by and she didn't like the look he gave her. She thought the Lab managers refusal to give away information, captain Reed, Your CI, they must all be connected"

"speaking of the lab manager, he said he will inform the pentagon about the CI detail we received, but they were a no show, may be the manager lied" Antonio suddenly remembered although the case with Voight's CI was closed.

"so what did you say you found" Al inquired. " please don't tell me you used CPD equipment to do what ever the illegal thing you did"

"course not" Mouse replied. "I ..er... obtained access to the security camera system "

"by 'obtained access' you mean you hacked in to the security system" Antonio raised an eyebrow at Mouse.

Mouse just shrugged and played in his laptop two video clips that included a conversation between the lab manager and captain Reed and another one that showed Captain Reed making a call at the exit of the Lab and throwing the phone in to the garbage bin.

"where is the sound" Ruzek inquired.

"The Lab manager can mute the security recordings, he did that when we were interviewing him" Antonio said. "Though we don't need sounds to understand that it wasn't just a professional talk, its a heated argument, look at the body language"

"The Lab manager looks petrified" Al observed. "what's with the throwing of the phone"

"it's a disposable phone" Mouse said and everybody looked at him surprised.

"How do you know that" Voight asked.

"because I scavenged the garbage dump at 3.30 in the morning" Mouse said pulling out the phone from the inside jacket of his hoodie. "waited for the night garbage truck and followed it to the dump, then waited hours until nobody was around"

"You are a piece of work" Ruzek exclaimed grabbing the phone which was secured in side a plastic evidence bag.

"The memory has only one number, I looked in to it and it belongs to one John Silva; dead several months ago" mouse provided more info. "Reed is definitely on to something in this whole drama"

Voight took a step back and looked at his team before he barked up the new set of orders. "Antonio and Atwater check out for Erin, go to her apartment, she is not answering any calls apart from the text I received at around 4.00 in the morning. Mouse try to get any cams around her apartment. Also try to pin the location with Doc, Al with Ruzek take a look around the Med, try to find what you can, I'm heading to lab managers home, time to have a private conversation"

With that the whole team dispersed in to their tasks leaving mouse and Will in the precinct.

* * *

"Anything?" Al asked from Ruzek who went to try and make small talk with the guard outside what used to be the ICU 1 of Chicago Med. Ruzek looked so disappointing.

"I swear, it's like a damned mini pentagon in the middle of the hospital" He swore. " But I saw through the glass the 'supposed to be dead' man. he is up, all wired up to the machines though"

"be a little descent to a man who survived a gun shot, hypothermia and all other conditions only Doc knows" Al said pulling out the tooth pick he was chewing and putting it in to the bin. " My gut feeling say we gotta talk to this soldier, he is our key"

"And how do you plan on doing just that?"

Al's eyes diverted up to the ceiling and ran along the Air vent line.

"Oh no, no no!" Ruzek pleaded. "I'm definitely going to loose my job"

"Its a simple choice, you want Jay back or not" Al presented the ultimatum to Ruzek.

"I do, of course" Ruzek stated " And a new job"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08**

Erin woke up to the silence of the jail cell.

Her mouth felt dry and coarse. She tried calling Jay's name but no sound came out of her. She looked for water and found a water bottle, some food and two pain killer tablets to her side. She was pleasantly surprised but she couldn't help but feel horrified that Jay wasn't around. She could not get herself to stand up as her back ached like hell. She sat back and took the tablets, although she felt the emptiness in her stomach, she had no appetite at all. She slowly found her voice as the water went down her throat. This time she really called for Jay. But no response came. The room was lit by a mobile lamp and she just laid back down on the cold floor until the pain killers started working and slowly drowned in the drowsiness that felt more like just exhaustion.

She woke up again to the deafening silence of the Jail cell. This time she was more aware of her surrounding and what happened to her. Although she had no idea about the time or the date, she could clearly recall her last memories. She remember realizing that she was dying and she could still fell Jay's presence as she took what felt like her last breath. But she was alive. And that fact brought her fear that Jay must have agreed to what ever they said just to save her. She stood up with some considerable effort to try and walk to the jail door but she froze in place when she saw the pool of blood in front of her. She was not a stranger to blood, she had seen enough blood and dead bodies to drive someone crazy but still manage to sleep at night. But the fact that this blood could be Jay's struck her to the core. She sat slumped where she took her first step unable to do anything else.

Trying to process the situation she tried to come up with anything that could indicate that this pool of blood was someone else s, but then where was Jay? So many emotions hit her at once that she knew if she doesn't get a grip she was at the verge of a panic attack.

If Jay is dead...then she did not tell him that she loved him. He died without knowing how much she loved him, she didn't even accept his offer to move in. She didn't tell him how much she wanted to be with him that she wanted him to move in with her. But she held back her idea waiting for him to come back after this mission. Now if he is dead... he died not knowing any of that. Erin couldn't believe how stupid she was to hold back on him . The guilt she felt was insurmountable. If she could just turn back time...

* * *

Will Halstead looked like a broken man as he slowly made his way in to the Med. He had finalized on the area where the soldier might have fallen in to the river with the help of Mouse. He was a doctor so his knowledge with mouse's math gave them a not so narrow area to work with... though his mind said it would more likely be a shot-and -thrown in to the water situation. More and more he thought about it, images of Jay lying in the bottom of the river came in to his mind. He really needed to use a break from the hospital because he was slowly coming to a position where he was doubting his ability to do right by his patients and that was dangerous. He had just turned his car to the apartment parking lot when he got a call from Al asking him to come back to the hospital and he turned his car without even asking why.

Ruzek and Al was waiting for him at the main entrance like two thieves.

"Can we talk some where private" Al asked and Will took them in to their rest room.

"What is it" He asked impatiently as he closed the door shut.

"We need to talk to that soldier" Al stated shortly while Ruzek didn't look so confident."It's the only living lead we have so far"

Will looked at the two of them giving him the bandit vibes. He knew his brothers team wasn't the ordinary when Jay asked him to patch up a young man as a help to Voight, in a basement, in the middle of a gun fight. Will realized something about himself that night. If he could keep cool in the middle of a gun fight like his brother, maybe he wasn't an apple so far fallen from the tree as his father used to say. Fast forward to the present, he remembered he has to talk to his father about Jay's MIA status sooner. The two were never on the same page about anything but he knew deep inside his father loved them both. But he shook himself to the present where he was in the room with Al and Ruzek.

"How are you going to do that?" he asked.

"We've been monitoring the doctor inside, he has to pee within the next hour" Ruzek blurted and Will found himself gaping his mouth. Al quickly chimed in to the situation with real details.

"oh, we are just going to use the air vent to kind of , you know, get in to the room while the doctor is using the bathroom, gonna lock the room from inside and have a quick word with the soldier and probably get out of there before the doctor comes back"

"do you know how crazy you sound? Will blurted out. "What if he comes back before you get out of there?"

"He won't, we'll lock the room from inside" Al provided

"What if the patient gets in to cardiac arrest while the doctor is locked out? this patient is in very very poor shape, his heart is very weak?What about all the germs you two will take in with you?

Al and Ruzek exchanged a glance. They knew there were a lot of things in their plan that could go wrong. They knew their plan was stupidly dangerous but it was all they could come up with. But they had never given a thought about the condition of the patient. The mere thought that the patient could talk was enough for them.

Will was now scratching his head. Ruzek slumped on to the couch and Al leaned on to the wall and disappeared in to his own thoughts. They knew they had to find a way, but risking the life of another soldier was just not a valid option.

* * *

Hank Voight was a man who knew intimidation since birth. When he stood on the door steps of the lab manager he put on his best face forward to make the man agree with him for a talk.

A petite woman opened the door and she looked at Hank Voight questioningly.

"I'm Hank Voight from Chicago PD, intelligence department. Is Mr Sandro Agani home?" The woman disappeared in to the house and a man in his late fourteens appeared. He closed the door behind him and motioned Hank Voight to a side.

"I'm hank..." he started but was cut short.

"I heard, how can I help" The man asked and Voight could actually feel something all over this man. His face looked defeated. Voice sounded unsure and his fingers were slightly shaking. He so looked like a rabbit confronted by a wolf, that Voight almost feared the man was going to bypass him and runaway.

"I need to talk to you somewhere private, would you come take a ride with me?"

The man looked dejected and then protested right away just like Voight expected. "I'm an innocent Lab manager, what talk do you have with me, besides I'm in a hurry, maybe we can postpone this to a later hour"

"You are _the_ lab manager with the heaviest army security given to a private facility I have ever seen. You promised two of my detectives that you will inform the pentagon about the information we have from a CI but they never showed up. I don't believe you forgot to do that, but maybe you did informed a particular Army personal about it and now one of those detectives are missing. I think we have a lot to talk about before I speak to pentagon directly"

" I was actually on my way out to the office, maybe we can talk outside" The lab manager said to Voight's delight. They both got in to their vehicles and Voight followed the Lab manager until he parked outside a busy breakfast shop. They went inside like they didn't know each other but as soon as they were inside the Lab manager took Voight by his arm and walked fast inside a narrow door to a private booth. The owner is my friend, private booth is open for me anytime" he said as an explanation to the questions Voight reserved. "This is the only place on earth I believe to be really private"

The owner walked in, they exchanged their pleasantries and a mouth watering breakfast arrived. Finally everything was settled to the Lab manager's liking and he looked ready.

"Tell me about captain Reed" Voight shot the first question at the first chance.

The dejected feeling was back on the lab manager's face and he was silent, gazing at the steaming breakfast like it will somehow save him from the gauntlet that is Voight.

" I promise you that I will not expose you, that's all I can promise you. But the lives of two of my detectives maybe in danger. They are my family. If you help me with this I will forever be in your debt, but if you don't I will still find a way to save them, and I will forever hold you responsible. believe me, holding a grudge with me... that has never...never worked out fine to anybody in the past...so"

"Stop" said the lab manager wiping his sweaty palms with a tissue. " I've heard enough threats during the past month and I'm having enough of it." He threw the tissue to the bin like it was Reed himself.

"I will tell you what I know, because one; I'm having enough of dancing to Reed's tune, and two; because your two if my doubts are right your two ditectives are not the only one whose lives are in danger. Why am I dancing to Reed's tune? because he threatened my family. My son is 12 and my daughter is only 10 and I have been like an obedient dog to him. But now I have an idea where that bastard Reed is heading and I'm willing to reveal what I know because I think this is bigger than I ever thought it was. But please tell me you can keep my family safe. I can't go to the authorities. If they apprehend Reed, my family will be in more danger, because Reed isn't the only party in this. You were what I've been hoping for, a third party Reed is oblivious to who can solve this without involving the military."

Voight shook his head in agreement and silently took his notepad out of his coat pockets. This was going to be one hell of an interview.

* * *

Will walked to the coffee maker at the end of the hallway. He looked nothing like a man with a devious plan but an exhausted doctor who was looking for a boost from the caffeine. He poured himself a coffee from the machine and gave a sweet smile at the soldier who was walking at him. The smile was returned but a subtle doubt laced with and Will waited until the soldier filled his cup to the brim and was about to go.

"Will Halsted" He stretched his hand out to a shake. The soldier neither introduced him nor was he interested in a handshake but took time to give Will a good look.

"My brother was a Ranger, served Afghanistan and god knows where else. when ever I see military I feel connected, can't help it, sorry "

"I understand". The soldier said now accepting the handshake Will offered.

"where is he now" he questioned back. Will was glad he started a conversation somehow but debated whether he should tell the truth. He remembered something Jay told about being successful at going undercover.'half truth is always better than downright lie".

"He served only two tours, medical reasons you know...he couldn't anymore. PTSD and..." The soldier nodded in understanding. "Sorry to hear that, give him my regards"

"Sure, be safe" Will said halfheartedly knowing he was about to drug this guy. He made a mental note to never involve in this type of thing considering how anxious he felt for the pretense he was doing. He sure should have given Jay more credit for the line of work he is in.

As the two parted Will somehow; to his surprise, managed to successfully make his turn so sudden that his hand brushed against the soldier making him drop his coffee. The coffee was all over both of them, and will started apologizing profoundly.

The soldier responded calmly when he saw how disturbed the doctor had become. "it's alright, it's alright" , he repeated until the coffee was wiped off his uniform by Will to his own satisfaction. Without hesitation Will Halstead started the second part of his act.

"The coffee machine needs a refill, so please take my coffee" He offered.

"It's alright I can wait"

"No, please, its' my bad so please accept this coffee as pardoning me"

The soldier couldn't say 'no' to Will's hilarious request for pardon and he took the coffee cup with a smile. " Okay Doc, Coffee accepted as pardon".

Will waited until the soldier disappeared to wipe the sweat off his forehead. When he entered the rest room, Ruzek was anxiously waiting for him.

"How did it go?" He asked as he followed Will to the sofa.

"I didn't faint"

A chuckle escaped Ruzek at that. "That bad?"

"It went well, but I feel terrible for what I did to that soldier."

"but you did it for a good cause"

"yeah, I keep telling myself that, but doesn't make me feel any better"

"You know what will make you feel good? if everything works out fine and we get anything out of that guy"

Will smiled faintly at that. Anything was better than nothing. "the GHB I put in his coffee will start working withing 5 to 15 minuets. Is Al ready? he asked.

"You put GHB?" Ruzek questioned with wide eyes. "Isn't that some date rape drug?"

"It is in the street, but in the hospital its an anesthetic. I used a very small quantity so it should give him a bit of dizziness for about half an hour. Its not enough for full unconsciousness"

"Okay" agreed Ruzek and they waited for the next two very long minuets.

Ruzek stood in a position where he could see the soldier pretending to engage in a very boring long telephone conversation. Two minuets was gone but the soldier looked fine. This time he actually took a call to Will who was still at the rest room.

" Are you sure the amount is enough?"

"Relax, it could take up to 15 minuets to act" came the reply.

Ruzek started punching his phone with a game. His eyes from time to time set on the soldier to see signs of dizziness or tiredness as an early sign of what was to come. Still nothing.

He took another actual call to Al who was waiting at the other end of the passageway that ran along the ICU 1 ward, ready to catch the soldier at the right time. Al had camouflaged himself with a few accessories, with a change of clothes he was unrecognizable in the cameras. The plan was for AL to catch the soldier as he give in to his dizziness. While the Army doctor comes out to see the commotion and start first aid, Will will come with a five second delay to allow the Army doctor to start with the soldier and then swiftly gain access in to the room through the opened door pretending to check on the patient while the Army doctor is busy. This will be the golden moment and the highest point of risk when he will be able to speaks to the patient.

Ruzek ran through the plan in his head and found a lot of gaping loop holes in it, but it was the best they could come up with without head on loosing their jobs. So he stopped looking at his watch or at his phone for the time passed because it inevitably made him look nervous. He delved in to the game and was about to win the virtual battlefield solo, when he heard a loud thud. The soldier had fallen flat out at his post with no warning signs. Didn't the Doc said it _wasn't_ enough for full blown unconsciousness? Ruzek's natural reaction was to run to him but since no one was around, he took time to send a pre drafted text to Will and Al with one click. He couldn't forget that there were CCTV cameras and he had to act naturally. He then stood up and briskly walked to the soldier like any civilian human would do. he saw Al appearing fast at the start of the passage way. Will must be on his way. Everything for the first five seconds went well...until Maggie appeared through a door in the middle of the passage way.


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 09**

Disclaimer : I do not own Chicago PD.

* * *

Will all their efforts go to waste? was the question in Ruzek's mind when he observed with seethe how Al turned to another door and disappear before Maggie noticed him. Ruzek considered removing himself from the now 'gone south' plan but he was too late, Maggie had noticed him in the passage way.

"oh, crap" he muttered under his breath, why was he the lone ranger in this goat rodeo of a plan. So he hopelessly joined Maggie who was checking the soldier's pulse and started paging.

" what's wrong"Ruzek asked as he knelt beside her. Maggie shock her head indicating she had no idea. "He was guarding the room and then just fell flat, I've paged Dr. Choi"

"This room?" Ruzek asked as if he knew nothing about the isolated ICU unit. "guarding who?"

" there's a military person inside, and a doctor too" she said as her face slightly brightened up. Ruzek took this perfect chance to knock the door, realigning the plan to its original track. " maybe he knows why?" he added.

Shortly a man appeared in doctors garb. He was first taken aback by the scene in front of him but was quick to jump in to doctor mode. Two more nurses had crowded the scene by now and Will Halstead appeared from nowhere behind them much to Ruzek's addition was proving to be a better He squeezed in to the room through the door left open by the military doctor without wasting a second. Ruzek felt his heart beat leap with excitement both because now the plan was back in track and Halstead will now have only seconds to talk to the soldier inside, before he screw up the already almost screwed up plan.

Will Halstead on the inside of the room was feeling quite the opposite. He felt nervous, true, but this was the moment. So he felt empowered because he was doing at least something for his brother than just sitting and waiting for him to appear out of MIA. He cautiously but quickly walked to the patient and tapped his soldier. The soldier turned his head and opened his eyes clearly annoyed. His eyes wondered on Will for the briefest second because he was a new face in his isolated room, then the wondering eyes stopped at his name badge. Will opened his mouth to speak what he had planned in his head but was in total shock when the soldier grabbed him by his coat with amazing speed and strength. Will recognized his eyes were glued to his name badge. He was trying to say something but only a dry cough came out. So he quickly offered him the water glass with the straw all the while keeping an eye on the door. while the soldier took a quick sip of water Will spoke quietly. " I'm Jay Halstead's brother". Then he heard a stretcher being placed on the floor out side the door, it was his clue to go. Choi must be outside The soldier said something but it was still inaudible to him, sounds did not escape his throat. "I have to go, tell me something, anything, do you know him? is he alive" Will begged. The soldier shook to say 'yes' to all his questions. Then Will heard the familiar sound of a stretcher being lift up. The sound of the stretcher's metal wheels raking the floor left him with no other option but to leave, despite the reddened eyes of the soldier fiercely begging him to understand what he was barely sounding. Will gently removed the soldier' hands from his coat that were still clung to him. "I must go" Will said as he turned to go but a single lucky word escaped the soldiers mouth clearly.

Ruzek shuddered when Will Halstead stood outside the door a millisecond before the Military doctor turned to go inside. They exchanged a small smile before passing each other and Ruzek released a breath with relief. "Do you have anything?" Ruzek asked when all people were dispersed and only him and Halsted were left staring at each other.

Will Halstead's face was unreadable and before he said anything, he heard the cry of a man coming from inside the room. Dr. Halsted has heard many cries in his life as a doctor, but this was the most broken hearted and scariest cry he had ever heard. Hopelessness wrapped it. He shivered because he knew that the soldier had finally found his voice.

But by the time the lone soldier found his voice; the voice he had lost because he was threatened not to say anything , his sergeant and best buddy's brother was already out of his room. His one chance of having the company of someone who he could trust with the information he had was gone. So Harvey Copeland cried with the pain of loosing any hope he had of saving the man who joked him of having two surnames but saved his bacon a many times in the battlefield.

* * *

Hank Voight sat behind his desk. His eyes were going through the pages of an album he kept inside his desk drawer. One picture taken on the day Erin Lindsey graduated from school had Erin standing between Justin Voight and a proud Camille. All three of them were out of his life right now and Voight felt so empty. So empty that he begged god for Erin's safety. The other picture carried the man who, for his own surprise had started to grow on him; Jay Halstead with mouse and Ruzek, proudly standing in front of a pile of illegal drugs they were able to seize. Voight had a feeling he will one day become his family. He was an anchor to his pseudo daughter and Voight had grown fond of this man little by little everyday. Jay was one of the bravest at his age, accurate, smart and very trust worthy though it took Hank Voight a good amount of time to accept that only because his judgement was clouded by his need to protect Erin Lindsay. Now that he knows who the real Jay Halstead is, it would be a shame if he couldn't save him now. Specially after Ruzek confirmed that Jay was alive..somewhere, according to information obtained by Will.

"Hank, they are coming" AL said as he peered through his door. Voight looked up and saw Antonio running up the stairs. Ever since Antonio called from Erin's apartment he had been waiting like an anxious cat. Antonio wasted no time and plugged a flash drive to the PC. All the team gathered around. The video was dark, but clear enough to see what was happening. It was the back of Erin's apartment building. A van stopped and a few men got out of it. They got in to a suspended platform used for cleaning the windows. The platform went up and a quick minuet passed by without anything happening. The camera only caught the first two levels of the building so the team was left in a blind spot about what is happening at Erin's floor. Then it came down with the four men in it plus a body bag. They quickly lift it up and put it in to the van before it disappeared. A license plate was clearly visible and Voight shot a glance at Mouse. " Already on it!" mouse jumped up to work. They both knew it cannot be an original license plate but it could lead them some where.

The whole room was left in an odd silence. The fact that Erin could be in that body bag had silenced them all because it was hard to accept but it was staring right at their face. Ruzek of all was having a hard time accepting it.

"are we serious? " he asked. "Do we all believe Erin is in that body bag?"

"There is no doubt" Antonio replied. "Their foot prints were all over the windowsill, hadn't even tried to cover it up"

"This is crazy! but why?, we are not even in a case"

"But she was digging in to the lab manager's business" Antonio replied.

"Or more correctly; in to captain Reed's business" Voight said and everyone turned their heads at his way.

"What makes you so sure its the captain and not the lab manager ?" Antonio questioned.

"I had a talk with the manager" Voight said with a sigh. He had contemplated how to share the highly classified and highly sensitive information with his team or whether to share at all. But he was encouraged by the nod came from Al.

"He says that there is this new weapon inside the lab, and Reed threatened him and obtained his passwords of all access to the chamber that the weapon is housed"

"wait, what kind of weapon?" Ruzek jumped from his chair.

"didn't say" Voight replies blankly. "but, it does fit in with the information we received from Al's friend."

" captain Reed's team was suppose to retrieve and transport something back home. Something disastrous if fallen in to the wrong hands. The item was retrieved successfully but during the transportation the mission went south. Two military people went missing and here is the bad news. They think Jay and the other missing guy is part of it. They think who ever obtained the item most probably weapons smugglers, had help from Jay " Al filled in.

"So maybe they already have Jay" Ruzek exclaimed reccalling the words from the military person.

" Dr. Halstead got a few seconds with the military patient in isolation today, just a few seconds" he said sharing the information with Antonio who wasn't aware of His and Will Halstead's small adventure. Everyone exchanged glances but knew not to pry in to the fact as how he did that. In a case like this that an inquiry is surely impending it was better they knew less.

" This guy has lost his voice for the most part, maybe because he hasn't spoken a word since he was found. Will says it also happens when a tube is down your throat for a prolonged time. Anyhow this guy held on to wills name badge like a slug, didn't let go for the entire time, He finally managed to say a word that Will heard like "Prison". But when Will asked if Jay was alive, he had clearly nodded.

Antonio fell to the chair next to him in relief. He didn;t care where Jay was, in prison or on Mars. Just the fact that Jay was alive washed over him like rain on the dessert. The team shared his relief. Atwater pressed his hand on Antonio's shoulder to let him know his feelings were shared. "That's one hell of a mile stone in this" He celebrated. "Are you saying the military already found Jay and he is placed in a prison because he failed his mission ?"

"no, but probably because they think he did it on purpose " Al said deadpanned.

"We know Jay would never do that, and if Erin got..." Atwater paused and considered which word to use shoving aside the fact that she could very well be dead now. "If she got _abducted_ because she was digging in to the lab's business the the only thing that connects the both cases is Reed"

"The bastard busted Jay for cover up, its all his doing" Antonio stood up pushing his chair back, ready to take on Reed right there, right then. But then he paused mulling over something. " we need to piece together another part in to this, remember how your CI gave us information about something planned to be transported out of the lab? Cant it be that Reed now has all the access he wants and he is somehow planning to transport the piece of weapon the lab is holding, "

"Let's say he did,Then what?" Al asked.

"What if he has the other part of the weapon, he connects the pieces and bang ! he has the full weapon? maybe he will blast it , maybe he will sell it, for all we know he spent most of his life in Afghanistan and other troubled areas, maybe he developed some profitable connections."

"Jay literally worships this man" Ruzek cut in. "are we talking about the same Captain Reed who, according to Jay; was his father in military?"

"well it wouldn't be the first time a mentor betrayed his protege" Al stated blankly.

" This is so sick" Ruzek murmured to himself. His knees had started to feel like giving in. "what if he blows up the whole of Chicago!"

" let's not panic now, you are over reacting. Clearly one half of what ever weapon this is, is still with the lab, so there is no chance for a blow up situation. Thank god who ever decided to build this in pieces. So let's think this through" Al cleared the flaming atmosphere within the bullpen, though just a little. But Ruzek wasn't having it.

"Oh! I thought it through." He chastised. "He has Jay covering up his ass, he has full access to the weapon, He has transport planned, and if he planned all of these then he definitely has the other half too. And when he gets both pieces together, I can assure you that bastard wont waste time sitting on it!"

"But one thing is missing here", Atwater said much to his friend's displeasure. "just because he can open all the doors, it doesn't mean he can just drag it outside and load it to the truck, someone has to take it out, just how will he manage that?

In all their history, the team had never found themselves in a tight spot as this. Sure, they have come face to face with many blank walls. But this time was different. They were having a hard time getting their head around where to start. Two of their detectives missing only made the matter worse.

"shouldn't we be contacting the military, the pentagon, Ivory tower or what ever?" Ruzek suggested.

" How do we know whom to trust? how do we know who is on whose side? If we take all the information to the military, it will be like offering Chicago to the wolves" Voight thwarted Ruzek's idea without mercy. "Right now the only people I trust, stands inside this bull pen. Don't underestimate the undercurrent in this situation, sabotaging a highly classified military operation is no easy task, Reed alone could not have achieved this"

"The license plate is of no use" Mouse announced what they already knew effectively braking the tension that was building. Voight bit in to his nails for a second. All eyes set on him in anticipation and it looked like he hadd made up his mind as he pulled the flash drive out of the PC.

" Mouse, contact my CI, put a tracker on his truck and tell him we are reopening the case. Antonio go and check the twins, see if they are getting ready to leave, Ruzek stay on guard at the hospital, Atwater trail the lab manager, Al try to find Reeds' whereabouts, I'm gonna meet a friend at Ivory towers main lab, he can do magic with facial recognition software, I'll try to see if we can identify any of the perks in this video." Voight started barking up orders as he waved the flash drive. "we need eyes everywhere"


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

 **Thanks a lot, a lot for the reviews. You motivate me to complete this story.**

Disclaimer : I do not own Chicago PD. A few lines in this chapter were borrowed from a deleted Chicago PD scene.

* * *

Erin walked the length of the cell back and forth to calm her nerves. She tried to think of what her next move should be for every possible reality. If Jay agreed to do what Reed wanted him to do, should she let him do it?, won't he be putting the lives of many more just to save her?. But she knew she had to trust Jay. He was not a sentimental fool, he was a trained soldier, a ranger, a cop, a detective who had faced many more adversities. He was able to get his life together when he came back to normal life after war, even after suffering from PTSD. She just had trust his decision. But that would be possible only if he was alive. Whose blood is it on the floor?

Erin was avoiding the pool of blood so far, but now she stood up in front of it. If this blood belongs to Jay, then he went down fighting so Erin made up her mind. What ever she had to face next, she was going to honor Jay and his relentless dedication to always save his people. She was not going to go down without a fight and probably take them down with her too.

As if some higher force answered her wish, she heard the sounds of footsteps and she ran to the cell door. She felt the cloud in her head disappear when she saw Jay walking towards her, healthily. He gave her a faint smile as the cell door closed behind him and Erin wasted no time hugging him in a tight embrace. He returned it in kind. As they ended their embrace Jay still held her by her elbows looking in to her red rimmed tear filled eyes. What on earth made her cry? he wondered.

"I thought I lost you" Erin said trying her best to halt her sobs. "Whose blood is that?"

"Aaah! I totally forgot about that" Jay said regret washing over him. She had been crying and it was his fault. He should have known she would panic when she woke up alone to a pool of blood, not that he could have performed any janitorial acts, but still he could have done something, he thought.

"Come on, sit down" He said as he guided her to sit down next to him. The cold stone wall supported their backs and she held her head on his shoulder.

" That belonged to Reed" Jay said and Erin reacted just as he expected. She shot her head up in disbelief." I'm thinking, you are responsible for that"

"yep, he just had to run his mouth," Jay replied nonchalant never mentioning what Reed actually implied upon seeing Erin's sleeping figure. It sent chills down his spine even thinking about it.

"what happened afterwards, where were you, did they hurt you? Erin bombarded him with questions, her eyes searching him for any injuries.

"I didn't just take him out out of rage, he was one too many in our bid to win this game. So now that he isn't around, one less problem to bother about"

"Did you kill him?" Erin dead panned.

No...geez Erin," Jay said "how cold hearted do you think I am?" he asked but Erin did not reply instantly. She knew the gravity of the situation they were in. So Jay started to justify himself. " I'm sure all he has is one serious concussion" "... _that might kill him_." he added .

Erin hummed. "Okay, about what happened afterwards?"

"I agreed to get them what they wanted, I was planning how to's ... _with..._ them" Jay stuttered clearly knowing Erin will not be in favor of his decision.

"You what, tell me you didn't actually mean it" Erin sat facing him, she had to see him clearly to make sure he was still sane considering the nonsense he was telling her now. "You should have just left me to die Jay..."

" listen to me patiently now" Jay said as he took her hands. " tonight I'm going to the lab and get the remaining piece of the bomb. They had the transport already arranged, Reed had not changed the security settings of the lab which my team arranged before we left to Syria and I know the timings and weak points security. In fact if there is one person who can do it, it would absolutely be only me"

Erin gazed at him incredulously. Jay should be out of his mind if he is teaming up with the very people who are going to destroy Chicago just to prove a point. But Jay had pleaded to listen patiently, so she waited for him to finish.

Jay took a deep breath , a sigh and he started in hush tone again. "Once all the pieces are here, they will need at least two days to figure out things and connect all three parts. Its buying more time for the military and for our team if they are looking for us. Then, if that too doesn't work, they will still need my password, my retina scan and my palm scan to activate the bomb. "

" And you wont give them that, will you" Erin asked. She feared even to think what would happen afterwards. And without a doubt she knew it will end their lives in a very brutal way. But she dare not give away her fears because it would only put more pressure on Jay.

Jay shook his head to say no. Ultimately it was all in his hands. "I will use the kill password to kill the bomb, it will destroy all the circuitry without asking for a confirmation, after that what ever happens 'Chicago' will be safe."

Erin noticed how Jay omitted the topic of what would happen to 'them'. She leaned on to him again and felt a strange settled feeling. At least her near future was clear now. There was no more uncertainty. They were together and they had a plan. They were very well aware that the plan could go wrong but even then their ultimate goal will be achieved.

"I wouldn't help them bring all the pieces together unless it is the only way we could buy time, because I really want the military to have this specimen of a pulse bomb. When we infiltrated the Syrian base we found our scientists but we never got hold of the Syrian scientists who worked with them, what if they build another pulse bomb like this. Studying this specimen will be invaluable to learn how to detect and defuse such a bomb."

"I understand why you are doing this, I do,l... but, Jay this is crazy dangerous" Erin said as she cuddled more in to his warmth. How on earth are you going to bypass the security measures? I saw the lab a few days ago. Its super protected." Erin protested. This time she was unable to hide her dismay.

"I know, but I have a plan, I've learnt a few things when I was stationed at Brazil for six months that will come in handy. We shall see."

"Still your plan doesn't make me feel better" She complained playfully. But she couldn't disregard the risk Jay was taking. All because he couldn't watch her suffocate.

"If I get out of the lab alive tonight... " Jay paused wondering if it was the right moment to bring up the topic of living together. But he was really in need of a distraction. Erin was so close, her signature smell overpowered his smell of sweat, grime and blood. He knew he smelled bad, but Erin was having none of it hanging on to him like a life line.

"I know I'm asking this for the second time and I want you to be fully honest. Would you mind considering moving in with me " Jay asked. He wanted to stop himself from asking that. It wasn't fair for her to ask her opinion on such a matter when she was emotionally compromised. But Jay would be in a suicidal mission in a few hours and he couldn't deal with the fact how she hasn't responded to him about moving in with him. He had to know before he left. He had to know what he meant for her.

Erin closed her eyes in disappointment with herself. She knew she loved him with every fiber of her being and she wanted him to move in with her. Hell.. she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him...if she will have one !. She had to tell him, it was now or never.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have brought that up now" Jay said regretting his decision upon her silence. "I should have known you were silent because..."

But Jay's sentence were cut short by Erin.

"Jay, I Love You"

There.. she said it.

"Huh..." was Jay's immediate response.

"What were you thinking hot guy, that I would let you of the hook so easily" Erin played around. But that was not enough to convince Jay.

"Erin, you don't have to say that or decide to move in with me because of the pressure of the situation we are in" He said to the darkness of the room, not really looking at her.

"Jay, the least you can do when a girl says she loves you is 'look at her",Erin complained. "The only reason I took sometime was because I wanted to be sure about which option was better. I already have a mortgage, so I want you to move in with me. We can double up and pay it back in like 5 years, so you don't have to go for a fresh mortgage"

"You never cease to surprise me Erin" Jay said turning to her. Now fully aware of her motive, he really knew in fact that she loved him. He pulled her on to his lap and she sat comfortably, her arms around his neck, her gray eyes meeting his greens in the amber of the dimly lit room.

"But then you'll have to wake up in the middle of the night when I have bad dreams" He said his own hands cradling around her protectively.

"well, I sleep with six pillows so you might feel walled, I'm the cuddly type"

" I already know that, and I'm gonna tell you now, and I'm gonna tell you this in two years maybe in ten years, 'girl, do your thing!" Jay teased.

"You are amazing" Erin exclaimed.

" I know that!" , he took her face between his palms and gave her a soft kiss on her lips and placed another one on her forehead. They fell in to a comfortable silence feeling a little light hearted.

"So you agreed to risk your life just so you could save me, buy me two more days?". She questioned. So many scenarios ran in her head all at once, What if Jay get caught, they already think he is involved with the bad guys, what if he injures himself, what if..did he even consider what would happen to him?

"why would you take such a great risk Jay, this plan sounds ...deadly, I mean.. why take so much risk" She turned her fears and bewilderment in to words.

"For you, I would Erin" He said simply. "For you I would".


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Hi,

This chapter is dedicated to reading-lover-191, Katie and all the others who reviewed this as gueests. You guys are my primary source of motivation. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Also, I have a feeling that my grammar is kind of all over the place, so sorry for that.

Enjoy reading!

Disclaimer : I do not own Chicago PD.

* * *

Will Halstead knew sooner or later he had to deal with his father... about his brother , who was MIA right now. He just didn't know how.

No matter how many times and variations he practiced his speech like a contender for a marriage proposal, there just wasn't a right way that wouldn't piss off Pat Halstead. He had a heart condition which didn't help the situation and Will wondered if he should have had an ambo ready because no matter how many fights his father and Jay had, no matter how many years they went by without talking to each other after their mother's death, they were still very much father and son. They were alike in so many ways, arrogant, stubborn and hell bent on doing things their way that the two had a hard time living under one roof. So when his father opened the door to his lackluster knock and gestured him inside he had yet to wrap his head around how to say it.

Pat Halstead offered his son a drink and sat beside him.

" If you are wondering about the god damn tablets you make me drink everyday, then I took them properly, does that make you feel better?" He said to his son who looked pale and detached. "or do you have some med school exam, you always look like this when you have exams around the corner !"

Will looked at his father offended. " I ace my exams" he protested though he couldn't deny how he looked before an exam. " and FYI, I'm an attending at ER, its been a long time since I passed all my med school exams"

" oh! don't I know that" Pat Halstead grunted as he stood up to go sit in front of the TV, dismissing his sons displeased remarks.

Will decided to shut up considering the situation.

"so, what brought you here?" he asked the question dreaded by Will and for what felt like ages he didn't say anything. Finally he decided to go with the good news first.

"Dad, Jay is alive"

His dad looked like he thought Will was going crazy.

"say what?" he asked switching off the TV.

Pat Halsted switching off his favorite TV program to listen to his son alerted Will how much he was concerned about Jay, not that he would ever admit to care about his prodigal son who enlisted amidst his protest. When Jay casually mentioned he was going back on a short mission, he didn't even bother to comment.

But when he was met with his older son's disheveled appearance and the words that came out of him about his younger son made no sense, Pat Halstead shed his mask. He turned at his son from where he sat and waited for Will to explain what he said...which didn't happen within the normal duration of his patience.

"I swear Will, if you don't explain what you just..."

"Dad, I want to stress this point before I go in to any explaining,' Jay-is-alive" .

Pat was going to loose it. He shot out of his beloved couch and stood up in front of his son who had yet to make eye contact with him. " Will, you better make some sense withing the next minuet" he threatened.

"Jay made me his next of kin before he left" Will started. "because he didn't want you to have a heart attack at the news if he died". Maybe that came out a little harsh! Will observed as his father's expressions became totally unreadable. Whether it was because of his denial that Jay would ever care about him or it was because he was hurt that he wasn't Jay's next of Kin was lot to Will.

"that's why I was notified of this and not you" Will said as he handed over the letter of notification of Jay's MIA status to his father. Pat read it with shaky hands.

"Dad, I can't explain to you everything but the situation Jay got himself to this time, is overly ..I mean bazillion times more complicated than his last time." Will said as he recalled when Jay went MIA during his Afghan tour, it was his father who handed him the notification letter, with the exact similar expression on his face right now.

"I'm in contact with the intelligence team, they are on it too, but this secret is something you cannot share with any one. Only me and the intelligence know that Jay is alive, the army is not involved in how I found that out. I'm sorry I cannot go in to detail and I'm sorry I was late to inform you but I wanted to be sure of what was happening before I tell you". Will tried his best to hold down his emotions and not cry in front of his father who never encouraged boys to cry. But his walls broke down when he felt his father squeeze his shoulder in reassurance.

"If you are sure your brother is alive, then that's enough for me. I'm not gonna pry for information. I appreciate what ever trouble you went through with intelligence to get this news about Jay. I sincerely hoped his Afghan tour would be the last time he gave me the scares though" Will heard his father say. "but don't worry, Jay is too stubborn to die!"

Will's muffled sobs turned in to something between a full cry and a restrained laugh while he tried to mentally grasp both the facts that his father openly accepted his care for Jay and also understood what Will was going through.

Maybe Will was the one meant to have the heart attack.

* * *

The small window in the cell door opened and a few things fell to the floor. Jay woke up from his slumber to the noise. He was trying to get the maximum possible amount of sleep before he had to play vigilante. He knew how physically strenuous and mentally challenging what he was about to do will be. Although he was sure everything fell within his known capabilities, he had doubts considering how sun deprived he was, solely depending on soaked burgers and water for nutrition. Jay carefully moved Erin's head from his lap on to the floor and walked to the door.

" be ready in an hour". who ever was outside the door grumbled to him as he picked up the bags and Jay merely gave a 'hm' in acknowledgement, how was he to know what an hour was when they had stripped him off of his watch. Although Jay wanted to snap something at the man that would drive him berserk, he restrained himself reminding that for some part, his vigilante plan depended on these people for it to work, and he didn't feel like pissing them off right now.

Erin herself was up by now. She kept her eyes on Jay and observed how Jay's eye were curious looking in to different bags. He pulled out a black pair of sweat pants, a black hoodie and a black mask as the last piece of clothing. Jay silently undressed himself and dressed up in black. " at least they're the right size" he exclaimed. Erin was silently observing, how his solemn eyes avoided her. She then noticed something else.

"where is your ring?" she asked. "the one your mom gave, the lucky charm, you never take it off"

Jay looked down at his hand. " I gave it to Harvey before he escaped. Partly as his proof of my existence, in case he had to prove god-knows-what...I don't know, and partly because giving him my lucky charm was the only thing I could do for him right then."

Erin didn't say anything in return because she didn't know what to say to make him feel better. Instead she removed her own ring, walked to him and pushed it on his finger in place of the missing one. A little too tight but Jay couldn't care less as he looked at her in awe.

"are we engaging? Jay smirked.

"fat chance! we need to try and survive living together first" Erin bantered. " anyways, this is my lucky charm, Camille gave it to me before she passed away, its yours now" she said.

The mark made by his old ring was not visible now, covered by Erin's ring. She gave his hand a slight kiss before she let it go which translated in Jay's head as 'this-is-all-I-could-do-for-you'. Before she got overwhelmed with emotions Erin went back and sat on her spot on the cold stone floor.

Jay went back to checking the bags and Erin saw how his look changed in to a pained stare as he looked in to the other bag. A bag with the same old soaked burgers and water bottle, packaging removed to conceal any indication as to where they were brought from. Jay remembered how much Harvey resented the burgers having to eat the same thing for about two weeks in a raw. Jay wondered about Harvey, is he dead? was the last burger he ate with Jay really his last meal? It was safe to assume so considering nothing had changed since his escape from the cell plus that gun shot Erin heard...A chill ran down his spine and images of how Mandel, Harvey's twin was shot trying to cover up for him while he struggled to disable the bombs, played in front of his eyes.

The depressing memories had a profound impact on him. He felt his palms become sweaty and his vision become blurry. A familiar daze enveloped him, and suddenly he found himself lost in more memories. He heard a single gun shot and brain matter splintered all over him. His buddy Benson sat in front of him, strapped to a chair, with only half of his head on his shoulders. He heard Mouse shouting from background, swearing all kinds of filth at the rebels.

" If you don't answer my questions, next he will go. He is too loud to live". Some one said pointing the gun at Mouse. Then they were on the lead Humvee guarding a special convoy; were they in Afghanistan? Yeah they were, he realized as he found him, Mouse and Benson sitting inside their vehicle. He heard the blasters and the heat came up from under them. The Humvee they were in flew in the air and landed upside down. Why was his mind going back wards. He felt someone shake him and Jay found himself in current reality, the reality where he was stuck in a prison cell with Erin and she was tugging his pants.

"Jay are you okay?" she asked worried.

Jay did not answer for ten long seconds. Was he okay? he had to ask himself. He knew what happened to him. His flashbacks were coming to him which meant his PTSD is back in play. Jay thought he was over with it but the situation must have pulled the triggers.

He wanted to share with Erin how he was in the same situation in Afghanistan, he wanted to tell her how him, Mouse and Benson was captured and tortured by the rebels. He wanted to tell her how the rebels desperate for intel put a gun in front of Benson's face and threatened Jay to answer their questions, and he would have answered if he could. But the lives of many others depended on the intel the rebels were seeking. So he couldn't, because the lives they were protecting were more important than the three of them combined. He remembered how Benson nodded in agreement at him when he decided to keep his silence. In a matter of seconds Benson's' brain matter had ended up all over Jay. The rebels had finally shot him and ended the torture he was going through. Luckily before the same fate was received by Mouse they were rescued by his team. But no one could ever rescue what Jay lost that day. He lost a part of him that day. Is Erin going to be Benson this time? Jay wondered.

No matter how much he wanted to share these with Erin he just could not bring up the courage. He had long buried them down in the deepest closets of his mind. To explain those dark memories to someone else meant going through all the pain they endured back again, mentally and physically. Why did he get the flash backs again just before he was to play a big game? It was the last thing he wanted in a very long list of things he would rather avoid. Was the stress finally catching up to him? what if he zone out on the roof of the lab with the bomb strapped to his back?

Erin was looking at him puzzled, he had never zoned out like that before.

" just some memories" he told her easing the tension, "Bad memories".

Erin looked at him sympathetically and Jay was glad she accepted his explanation.

"what's in it" she asked changing the subject.

"food" Jay said dropping the bag at her feet and sitting next to her.

" then why are you upset about it?" Erin asked stretching her hands in to the bag to pull out two burgers. "because there are no fries?" she asked quizzically, her eyebrows dancing.

" really, you want fries? is it lost to you that you are officially abducted?" Jay retorted at her. Erin laughed and Jay basked in it, taking in and cherishing her careless laughter one last time keeping it in the safest place of his memory. if these were his last moments with her, then...

"just trying to lighten up the mood" she said looking further in to the bag. "but seriously, there are no fries!"

* * *

Al entered the bull pen at 4.30a.m. to witness most of his team members already sitting and waiting for Mouse who had called them in the wee hours of the morning to witness something that cannot wait till the sun has dawned. Intelligence team had so far failed at connecting the dots by keeping eyes on every variable in the investigation. All efforts had proven futile so far. Voight's facial recognition man couldn't do a thing about the too dark video. But Al came with news. He was able to contact his old ally in army with much difficulty to reveal him some news.

"what's up with them?" Al asked as he observed Hank and Antonio in an argument inside Voight's room.

"The usual" Ruzek said yawning. "Split about what to do"

" Antonio wants to inform the officials and Voight doesn't think so" Atwater explained.

"sorry" Apologized Mouse as he entered the bull pen hurriedly, his personal laptop safely hugged to his chest.

"there was a swarm of military people on the road, got checked many times, and the reason is right here" Mouse said while powering up his laptop wasting no time. Behind him Antonio and Voight joined seemingly abandoned their argument.

"I was monitoring the lab's camera feed last night, I mean this morning, I mean about an hour ago." Mouse tried to clarify. Staying up all night for two days had messed up with his sense of morning and nights.

"Then some one else hacked in to the system and that whoever cleverly changed the live stream in to a recording".

Every one exchanged glances. This thing was getting more and more complicated with every passing hour.

"There can't be many who could do that, I mean, its a military system, right? asked Ruzek.

"Yes, so being the hacker I am, I cut through it and got to the actual camera feed. You won't believe what I saw". he said as he fast forwarded the video.

" If hacking in to a military system could be done by only a few people, then there should be even less amount or not at all who could do what this guy is doing" Mouse said pointing his finger to a dark silhouette in the video.

" Look at this guy defying gravity. He climbs up on to the roof through a smoke pipe, then jumps across like a cat, to the next building which is a good 10 feet away. Then we'll get this camera feed for better viewing". Mouse said as he changed the video to another one." He crawls stealthily, then he removes a roof sheet with a screw driver. Do you see how he knows exactly which one to remove? this is definitely an insider job. Then he take a look at his watch, doesn't think twice to go in, a few minuets later he comes out, fixes this machine at the edge of the roof tile. I think its a mobile hydraulic lift, the kind you can carry in had, and some thing comes out, something cylindrical..."

"What on earth is that" Al wondered.

but he was cut through."Wait, is that what I'm thinking it is" Antonio asked.

"probably yes" Voight answered, faint fear attached to his voice.

"Oh boy, we are so screwed" Ruzek exclaimed" is that really the part of the weapon the lab was holding?"

"Wait till you see the last part" Mouse beamed enthusiastically. In all his hacking career he had never hacked in to anything this exciting.

Antonio slapped the back of Mouse's head. "This is some serious shit and you are happy?"

"wait till you see the last part" Mouse repeated as if to prove his enthusiasm was justifiable. The silhouette easily lifted the heavy looking cylinder, strapped it to his back and crawled like a spider, his head ducked low but as fast and weightless as a fly while carrying the heavy cylindrical thing.

"What the hell," Atwater sing sang. This guy is crazy, he must have something really important at stake to agree to do this kind of stunt". he said.

"or he is paid enough" Al gave his opinion.

"that's insane, what kind of money is worth risking his life _AND_ getting caught by military for treason, god bless the patriot act". Ruzek deadpanned.

"Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one." Antonio said admiring the moves of the silhouette on the lab's roof.

"doesn't matter how good he is" protested Ruzek." If this is an insider job, which it sure is, then he is going against his own people, bloody traitor"

"This guy knows his way around. Look, he then waits at the edge of the second roof without moving to the other roof, then comes what, the toxic waste removal tank truck with its load. See how accurate he is, he jumps on to the moving truck, with that weight on his shoulders and balances himself like a freaking gymnast. " Mouse paused his commentary to change the camera feed so to get a better angle.

" here, he inserts the cylinder through the tank hole, someone must be inside it to grab it,then he also jumps in. Anfew seconds after the hacker swiftly swaps the camera feed. I've got to meet that guy"

"What was that flip, the strange crawl, he has a certain style to how he balanced himself on that angled roof right?

Antonio asked more interested in how this silhouette did what it did rather than what happened. In his mind the silhouette was performing a miracle.

"Oh that, that's Capoeira plus parkour" Mouse answered without missing a beat.

"Capi - what" Ruzek goof balled.

"C-a-p-o-e-i-r-a" Mouse spelled it out for him. " Its brazillian jiu jitsu, I know because we were taught when we were stationed at Brazil for a special training. Jay went so crazy with it that he ate, drank walked danced even slept in capoeira style, we laughed at him, until he outperformed our trainer within two months, what a badass he was!"

What fell next was silence, every one was running their heads through what mouse just said, first because it was about _JAY,_ then because strange as it is, the new information made an uneasy connection between what was happening in the video feed and their MIA friend, who this whole investigation was wrapped around.

"Oh no, no" Antonio said in realization, hoping the others were on to it too. He was proven right as Al crunched the bridge of his nose and Voight commanded for a closer look at the person.

Mouse was now frantically hitting on his key board and after few attempts he hit the key board in frustration. "Its no use, he is too careful, no angle is clear, he knows where the cameras are, not to mention the black hoodie he is wearing".

Ruzek glues his eyes at the screen. " The height is about right, and the guy's build and the way he carries himself is just like..."

"If my gut is right, which it usually always is, this is..." Antonio paused unable to get himself to say it.

"No no no, that's not possible, " Atwater sat on a chair to support himself, he was feeling weak with the new revelation and Ruzek wondered if he should take back what he called this guy just a few minuets ago...a bloody traitor! or should he not? If this guy was Jay Halstead, then what the hell was at play? Was he a whole different person than the Jay Halstead they knew. Was Jay the real culprit here?

"I got some news from my Pal at the pentagon which is not comforting!" Al hesitated knowing full well he was only going to add fuel to the developing uneasiness with his news. "Reed is currently in hospital recovering from a concussion which according to Reed, was given to him by Jay Halstead"

Everyone gasped...literally everyone.

"According to Reed, he was on a back ally in Chicago after running some errands when Jay attacked him from nowhere. But That's just what he says right?" Al asked from the astonished faces glaring at him.

"Could Jay even do that? I mean this Reed guy is about 6,4" right?" Ruzek asked.

Antonio raised an eyebrow. He was Jay's instructor at the Boxing gym so he knew better. "Yes he can" he replied."I have no doubt whether he could, but the real question is whether he would "

"or whether he did it at all?...as in why is Reed lying and if so, who actually gave him that concussion?" Voight added.

Ruzek smacked his forehead in frustration and looked away from the screen that Mouse had paused with an image of the dark silhouette looking sid eways at the camera.

A small beep sound disturbed the team.

"guys, the CI's truck just started moving" Mouse said moving his chair to the other table and all eyes moved to Mouse's other laptop on his work desk. Mouse tapped a few keys ."It's definitely moving, guess where it started its journey"

Voight raised an eyebrow in anticipation of Mouse's answer.

"The toxic waste management facility which is only a few miles away from the lab"

"looks like the tank truck loaded the piece of weapon to the CI's truck before it entered the facility" Voight said analyzing the situation. "Now, where the CI truck ends its journey is where the weapon will end up. We can't let them have the full weapon, so gear up, get the big guns, we are following my CI".

In few seconds, the team was dressing up and loading their vehicles. Al saw how Antonio was trying and failing to fasten the latch of his bullet proof vest, it wasn't latching properly under his sweaty and shaking hands fueled by the storm in his head, Jay was his brother after all, he brought him to the unit. Al came from behind and started fastening his vest. Antonio's hands fell in defeat.

"Al, do you think its Jay?" he asked while Al roamed around him.

"most definitely, yes"

"Do you think he is ..."Antonio trailed off, he didn't know what to think of what he saw.

"what does your gut say" Al questioned back.

Antonio seemed to ponder this for a moment. "I think that he is in deep trouble than we could ever imagine, but him putting himself out there like that, in that dangerous situation is just...so like Jay, like he did when he had a bounty on him, what ever the crazy thing he did I think he did it to make something right"

"Then I guess we'll have to just trust our boy" Al said in his signature calm voice. "I know Jay, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever about him, you shouldn't too"

"Thanks Al" Antonio hugged Al tightly, comforted by his reassurance like he wanted someone to say it loud for him.

"Listen up" Voight said gathering up his team who made a half circle around him quickly. "This is something close to all of us" Voight addressed everyone's situation knowing what Jay meant to his team. " So far, we operated under the assumption that there is zero chance of Chicago blowing up, but hell, we don't even know what that weapon could do! But we don't have that luxury any more. So Al and I decided its time we inform the authorities. Since we don't know whom to trust, we decided to skip some levels and contact Al's friend in Pentagon. Al trust him fully so the risk is minimum. Also I'm hoping this will give us a ending to Erin's case too. I hope we will find her at the end of this." Voight paused to breath so he could hold down the burning emotions when he thought about Erin." What ever inquiry that follows this case, I will take full responsibility". Voight could hear the collective sounds of displeasure from his team members.

"Boss, we agreed, we are all in this together" Ruzek said, rolling his eyes in the process.

"I know, I know" Voight agreed raising his hands in surrender. " Also, about Jay..." He took a second too long to gather up his thoughts.

"I know what we saw in that camera feed was...confusing to say the least, but I haven't a shred of doubt about Jay. I always knew Jay to have his own conviction about things. I trust that what ever he is doing out there he has a pretty convincing justification for it. This mission is not just for our city, its for Jay too, for one of our own. So lets do this, and good luck"!

A few seconds later three vehicles sped out of Chicago police department's district 21. While the sun was starting to rise, they sped past the red lights, their hearts pounding faster and burning for Jay and Erin.

* * *

P.S. Next chapter is 'action' packed.

P.s. Just saying, I stumbled upon 'Yuri on Ice' and I can't get enough of it.


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